Evaluation of Substantial Equivalence of salinity-resistant transgenic potato

Transgenic plants and their products are being developed day by day due to their improved characteristics, and it is necessary to evaluate the safety of these plants before releasing them. Hence, the importance of the issue of biosafety of transgenic plants and the use of their products has led the regulatory agencies to create some laws called substantial equivalence. based on that, the essential nutrients of transgenic plants are examined and compared with the control. The present study aimed to compare the transgenic potato line F (salinity-resistant) with non-transgenic Agria cultivar plants. The salt resistant potato line was produced by transferring Arabidopsis SOS3 gene to potato (Agria variety) and its resistance was confirmed. First, the presence of AtSOS3 gene in F-line plants was confirmed and then the substantial equivalent experiments were performed by comparing the production of proline, soluble sugars, carotenoids and chlorophylls a and b, the relative expression of Catalase1 (CAT1) and AtSOS3 gene between F and non-transgenic WT Agria plants. Based on evaluations of physiological traits and some metabolites (proline content, soluble sugars, carotenoids and chlorophylls a and b) and morphological traits (plant height, dry and fresh weight of plant) between line F and WT, no significant difference was observed. The number of microbiome colonies around the root in the transgenic F and non-transgenic WT plants was a non-significant difference, which indicates that the transgenic line has no threatening effects on the environment and human pathogenicity. The relative expression of AtSOS3 and Catalase1 genes in line F had higher values than WT. The reason for such increase in the expression of Catalase1 is the activation of plant defense mechanisms against stress. Finally, the results of the evaluations proved the equality of line F and WT.