Comparative analysis of nutritional composition between herbicide-tolerant rice with bar gene and its non-transgenic counterpart

Nutritional assessment of transgenic crops used for human food and animal feed is an important aspect of safety evaluations. An herbicide-tolerant rice (Bar68-1) was generated by the stable insertion of bar gene, isolated from Streptomyces hygroscopicus strain HP632 into the genome of a conventional variety of Chinese rice (D68). Nutrients including proximates, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals and vitamins and anti-nutritive components such as phytic acid, lectin, and trypsin inhibitors of the brown and milled rice grain from the resulted Bar68-1 rice were compared with those of the parental line D68. The data demonstrated that the nutritional quality of both the brown and milled rice grains from the transgenic line was substantial equivalent to those of the non-transgenic counterpart, and most results of nutritional components fell within the range of values reported for other commercial lines.