Evaluation of transgenic rice seeds expressing T cell epitopes of Japanese cedar pollen allergens

A new line of cedar pollen allergen-accumulating transgenic rice, which accumulated the 7Crp peptide comprised of 7 concatenated major T cell epitopes of cedar pollen allergens, was developed; it improved on the shortcomings of an original transgenic line. The new line has one copy of inserted T-DNA and a substantial expression of the 7Crp peptide, and was named Os7Crp2. Regulatory approval is needed before commercializing this cedar pollen peptide rice as a genetically modified food product in Japan. Therefore Os7Crp2 was evaluated for the criteria required for food safety assessments, under the guidance of Standards for the Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Foods (Seed Plants) in Japan. No statistically significant differences were found between Os7Crp2 and the control (parental) Dongtokoi cultivar in physicochemical properties, expressed traits, or concentrations of key components, except for the insertion of the T-DNA and expression of the recombinant protein derived from the transgenes. These results suggest that Os7Crp2 is compositionally equivalent to non-transgenic rice.