Containment evaluation, cold tolerance and toxicity analysis in Osmotin transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Pusa Ruby).

The present study reports engineered cold tolerance and toxicity analysis in genetically modified tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Pusa Ruby) developed through constitutive over expression of Nicotiana tabacum Osmotin gene. Rate of seed germination, seedling establishment and growth remained unaffected in the transgenic tomato in response to a low temperature (15 °C) treatment, but were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) reduced in the wild type. At reproductive stage, the wild type plants failed to recover at the low temperature (4.0 °C) treatment for 10 days but the transgenic plants survived successfully without any leaf senescence or other visible chilling injury symptoms. The quantitative transcript expression analysis confirmed up regulation of the transgene by 55% in the transgenic plants on cold treatment for 2 h whereas, the transcripts were not detected in the wild type. Containment evaluation under normal environmental conditions revealed similar morphology in both the transgenic and wild type tomato plants however an average fruit yield was higher in the transgenic plants (725.91 ± 39.27 g) than the wild type (679.84 ± 28.80 g). The composition of mature fruits in terms of element content was at par in both the transgenic and wild type except significantly higher Ca and Mg contents in the transgenic fruits than that of the wild type. Further, acute and sub-acute toxicity tests conducted in the adult female Wister rats revealed no mortality or significant changes in general and psychological behaviour, at par food intake and body weight and, normal biochemical, and hematological parameters for animals fed with the wild type or transgenic tomato fruits as compared to the control group, confirming its safety for animal consumption.