Real-time PCR method for detection of the transgenic rice event TT51-1

The insect-resistant transgenic rice event TT51-1 (synonym BT63) has been found illicitly planted and distributed for years although it has never been approved for commercial cultivation in any country up to now. The purpose of this study was to establish a detection method that is specific for this transformation event. The event-specific PCR method produces an amplicon of 120 basepairs (bp) based on the revealed 3′ junction sequence with a limit of detection (LOD) and a limit of quantification (LOQ) being approximately 5 and 10 initial template copies, respectively. Two mixed rice samples with known TT51-1 contents were used to verify the developed real-time PCR system, from which the expected results were observed.