Estimation of neomycin phosphotransferase-II (NPT-II) protein in vegetative and reproductive tissues of transgenic chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and biosafety perspectives

Chickpeas are consumed in various edible forms and hence presence of NPT-II proteins encoded by kanamycin resistance gene, NPT-II, in transgenic chickpea seeds raises biosafety concerns related to human health in particular. We estimated the NPT-II protein from various tissues like leaf, pod wall, immature seeds and mature dried seeds of five different transgenic chickpea lines expressing NPT-II. Quantitative ELISA studies indicated that the amount of NPT-II proteins decrease, as chickpea plants approached physiological maturity with mature seeds having lowest NPT-II content (0.98-1.32 ng/mg Total Soluble Protein). Mature chickpea seeds are most commonly used for edible purpose and the content of NPT-II estimated possess no discernible biosafety concern. Further, bioinformatics studies also indicate that NPT-II proteins are innocuous and possibly should not be active in acidic environment in the human gut.