Abstract

Rice is one of the staple foods of the Iraqi population; therefore large amounts of rice cultivated and imported in Iraq. Because of increasing the production of GM crops especially rice crop, it was necessary to investigate if there is any genetically modified rice (GM rice) in Baghdad markets. Conventional PCR and Real-Time PCR used to create this investigation. Genomic DNA extracted from 7 samples of rice seeds that cultivated in Iraq; 31 samples of commercial rice seeds and 4 samples of kids' food, where rice is one of their ingredients. The primers RM 171 selected to amplify the Rice Microsatellite Region (RM) for the DNA integrity inspection and rice species detection especially samples of kids' food, as well as, the primers P35S selected to amplify the CaMV35S promoter region (P35S) for Genetically Modified elements (GM elements) detection. There was no existence of GM elements in all samples except one, which was one of kids' food samples. These results indicate that the ability to produce GM crops and monitoring of the GM food entry are limitable in Iraq. Moreover, no commitment in the labeling regulations of genetically modified food.

Keywords:

Conventional PCR, GM rice, GM elements, labeling regulations, P35S,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.