Nutritional properties of tubers of conventionally bred and transgenic lines of potato resistant to necrotic strain of potato virus Y [PVYn]

The potential effect of genetic modification on nutritional properties of potatoes transformed to improve resistance to a necrotic strain of Potato virus Y was determined in a rat experiment. Autoclaved tubers from four transgenic lines were included to a diet in the amount of 40% and compared with the conventional cv. Irga. The experiment lasted 3 weeks and special attention was paid to nutritional properties of diets, caecal metabolism and serum indices. Genetic modification of potato had no negative effect on the chemical composition and nutritional properties of tubers, ecosystem of the caecum, activity of serum enzymes and non-specific defence mechanism of the rats. Obtained results indicate that transgenic potato with improved resistance to PVYN: line R1F (truncated gene coding for PVYN polymerase in sense orientation), R2P (truncated gene coding for PVYN polymerase in antisense orientation), and NTR1.16 (non-translated regions of PVYN genome in sense orientation) are substantial and nutritional equivalence to the non-transgenic cultivar. Tubers of transgenic line NTR2.27 (non-translated regions of PVYN genome in antisense orientation) increased the bulk of caecal digesta and the production of SCFA as compared to tubers of the conventional cultivar and the other transgenic clones. Taking into account some deviations, it seems reasonable to undertake a long-term feeding study to confirm the nutritional properties of tubers of transgenic lines.