There are studies on the assessment of non-edible transgenic plants on soil microbial communities. In this research we evaluated the effect of virus-resistant trigonal cactus on soil microbial communities of the rhizosphere. Soil samples are collected and compared in genetically modified (GM) and non-GM trigonal cactus cultivation fields during vegetative growth period and post-harvest period. Biolog EcoplateTM was used to evaluate the functional diversity of soil microbial communities. There were no significant differences between the GM and non-GM soil samples collected during the vegetative growth period. However, we observed temporary difference in carbon substrate utilization. Principal component analysis showed that soil microbiota was influenced not by presence of GM or non-GM trigonal cacti, but rather by the cultivation period. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis fingerprinting revealed that virus-resistant trigonal cactus cultivation had insignificant effect on soil microbial communities including dominant rhizosphere bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi. We found no clear evidence of GM trigonal cactus cultivation affecting the functional diversity of soil microbial communities.

The vitamin E enhanced transgenic soybean was developed by introducing a perilla γ- tocopherol methyltransferase gene (γ-TMT) under the control of pea vicilin promoter and a selection marker, phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) gene. With regard to the potential problems of safety, the non-target organism evaluation is required as an essential element for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. We studied the effects of the vitamin E enhanced transgenic soybean feeding on survival of Daphnia magna which is commonly used as a model organism in ecotoxicological studies. The Daphnia magna was fed on vitamin E enhanced transgenic soybean and non-genetically modified (non-GM) soybean (Willams 82) at 0, 1,000, 1,800, 3,240, 5,830, 10,500 and 20,000 mg/L concentrations, respectively. The GM soybean used for the test was confirmed to have the γ-TMT/PAT gene expression by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. The results showed that there was no significant differences between cumulative immobilities of Daphnia magna fed on GM soybean and non-GM soybean. The 48hr-EC50 values showed no significant differences between GM soybean (2,416 mg/L) and non-GM soybean (2,408 mg/L). The results of this study suggested that there was no significant differences in toxicity for Daphnia magna between GM soybean and non-GM counterpart.