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A two-year study at two different areas was performed to analyze the impact
of yellow mosaic virus resistant wheat on bacterial and fungal community
diversity in rhizosphere soil.

The research team led by Jiron Wu from Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural
Sciences, Nanjing, China used polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gel
gradient electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) at four growth stages (seeding stage,
turngreen stage, grain-filling stage, and maturing stage) of wheat to
analyze the microbial communities. They also studied the activities of
enzymes urease, sucrase and dehydrogenase in rhizosphere soil.

Results showed that there was a slight difference in bacterial and fungal
community diversity in rhizosphere soil between biotech wheat and its
non-transgenic counterpart when they compared the Shannon's, Simpson's
diversity index and evenness. Only one difference in the enzyme activities
was also noted. Analysis of bands in the gel for fungal community diversity
showed that the majority of fungi were uncultured.

Based on the findings, it was concluded that virus-resistant transgenic
wheat had no adverse impact on microbial community diversity and enzyme
activity in rhizosphere soil.

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