Effects of Transgenic Insect-Resistant Maize HGK60 on Rhizosphere Soil Bacterial Communities

While genetically modified crops bring significant economic benefits, the environmental safety issues they may pose have also received increasing attention. To study the impact of planting genetically modified insect-resistant crops on soil ecosystems, this research employed methods such as 16S rDNA amplicon full-length sequencing, using transgenic Cry1Ah insect-resistant corn HGK60 and its conventional counterpart Zheng 58 as subjects for a three-year continuous survey to analyze the effects of planting transgenic Cry1Ah insect-resistant corn HGK60 on the rhizosphere bacterial community. The following results were obtained. (1) A total of 216 corn rhizosphere soil samples were annotated to 51 phyla, 119 orders, 221 families, and 549 genera. (2) Overall, there was no significant difference in the composition of the rhizosphere bacterial community between HGK60 and Zheng 58 at the phylum, class, order, or family levels (p > 0.05), and the planting of HGK60 did not significantly affect the relative abundance of rhizosphere probiotics (p > 0.05). Some differences appeared only briefly and were not reproducible. (3) Alpha and beta diversity analyses showed that overall, the planting of HGK60 had no significant impact on the structure of the rhizosphere bacterial community (p > 0.05). (4) Significant changes in the rhizosphere bacterial community were observed across different growth stages of corn. It can be concluded that the planting of HGK60 has no significant impact on the rhizosphere bacteria. This study provides valuable data support for the environmental safety assessment of genetically modified crops.