Gene flow in transgenic soybean in the Cerrado region, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate pollen dispersal from transgenic to non-transgenic soybean plants. Non-transgenic soybean plants were cultivated surrounding transgenic soybean plants carrying the ahas (for herbicide tolerance against imazapyr) and gus genes. Pollen dispersal was evaluated by the presence of both dominant genes in the progenies of non-transgenic plants. The highest amount of transgenic pollen dissemination was observed in the first row, 0.5m distant from the central plot (0.44% to 0.45%). The frequency of pollen dispersion has drastically decreased in the row 2 (0.04% to 0.14%), reaching zero by the row 13, which was 6.5 m distant from the central plot.