Abstract:

Lysine-rich rice is a transgenic rice produced by inserting lysine-rich fusion protein gene into the germline of
rice seeds. According to the national standard of the People’s Republic of China, the food safety of glutelin extracted from
this transgenic rice by low alkali method was evaluated using acute toxicity test. In this study, glutelin was administered to
ICR mice by oral gavage at the dose of 5000 mg/kg. for continuous 14 d. Some indicators including body weight, routine
blood test, relative organ weights and histopathological examinations were conducted. The results showed that no toxic
symptom was found in tested mice in the acute toxicity test, and the LD50 for glutelin was higher than 5000 mg/kg. The
glutelin from transgenic GL gene rice, therefore, could be classified as actual nontoxic. No adverse effect on animal behavior
or mortality was observed during the experiment. There were no significant biological changes in body weight, routine blood
parameters or relative organ weights and no histopathological damage was detected. Our results suggested that the glutelin
from transgenic GL gene rice had no acute toxic effect on ICR mice.

Key words: transgenic GL gene rice, glutelin, acute toxicity, food safety