Mina Rouzi Dastenaei - National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Saeideh Rajaei - National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Mohammad Ali Malboobi - National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Esmaeil Ebrahimie - The University of Adelaide, La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne

Due to the development and increasing cultivation of genetically engineered plants as an integral part of modern agriculture, the biosafety of soil microorganisms, essential elements of soil fertility, quality, and stability, has been discussed. To reveal the effect of transgenic plants on soil bio-diversity, it is necessary to compare the microflora of transgenic and parental plants. In this study, second-generation GM sugar beet seeds rendered resistant to the propagation of Necrotic yellow vein virus of beets (BNYVV) via gene silencing in a field trial were compared to their parental plant by analyzing ۱۶S rDNA metagenomes with the use of the Illumina MiSeq platform. Analysis of the alpha and beta diversity found some influence on bacterial communication of rhizosphere between non-transgenic and transgenic (including ۲۱۱S۳, ۲۱۹S۳, ۲۲۸S۳, and ۲۳۱S۶ cultivars) sugar beets. Based on the results of the research on alpha diversity, the transgenic ۲۱۱S۳ and ۲۱۹ S۳ cultivars showed a lower average than the control sample in the Cho, phylogenetic diversity, Cho۱ bias correction, and the number of OTUs indexes; The transgenic ۲۳۱S۶ cultivar showed a significantly higher mean than the control sample in the Simpsons index. Also, in the study of beta diversity based on the Bray-Curtis distance algorithm, all ۲۱۱S۳, ۲۱۹S۳, ۲۲۸S۳, and ۲۳۱S۶ cultivars and control samples were positioned in one group. According to the Unweighted UniFrac distance algorithm, ۲۱۹S۳ and ۲۳۱S۶ cultivars were put together in one group, and ۲۱۱S۳ and ۲۲۸S۳ cultivars were classified into one group. A comparison of the bacterial genera showed a noteworthy reduction in relative abundance. While a few genera showed a significant decrease in terms of overall abundance, other genera that stabilize molecular nitrogen and motivate plant growth, such as Agrobacterium, Devosia, Mesorhizobium, Burkholderia, and Bradyrhizobium, showed a significant decrease compared to the control cultivar in all transgenic beets.

Beet necrotic yellow vein virus, bacterial community, genetically modified sugar beet, Illumina MiSeq, Rhizosphere Soil, ۱۶S ribosomal RNA gene