The Brazilian Sucro-energy Sector produces both energy, in the form of ethanol fuel, industrial steam and electricity, and sugar. Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC), the leading Brazilian sugarcane breeding company, has developed a pipeline of insect-protected sugarcane varieties to control sugarcane borer damage. The goal of this manuscript is to present the results of studies with three genetically modified (GM) sugarcane varieties and to evaluate the published literature regarding the possible presence of GM sugarcane DNA or protein in raw or refined sugar. Specifically, two varieties of approved GM sugarcane, CTC91087-6 and CTC175-A, and an experimental CTC variety, were grown in four individual plots to produce four batches each of processed raw sugar using standard smaller-scale laboratory processing methods resulting in a total of 12 independent batches of raw sugar. Herein, we report the development of event-specific probes and DNA detection methods, designed to detect the junction of sugarcane genomic DNA and the inserted DNA of the two approved GM varieties. An identical approach was used for the testing of sugar made from the experimental CTC variety. The methodology used TaqMan® real-time PCR and ELISA assays validated for the four GM proteins expressed by these three events (Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, NPTII, and PAT (bar)). The developed assays had very low limits of detection (LODs) for the various event-specific DNA probes (7.2–25 ng/g sugar) and insecticidal and selectable marker proteins (2.9–10.9 ng/g sugar). No event-specific DNA and no GM proteins were detectable in the 12 independent batches of raw sugar produced from these three GM sugarcane events. The results of this study, using very sensitive methods and testing several sugar batches, extend the conclusions of previous studies, reviewed herein, that showed the extensive degradation and removal of DNA and protein during sugarcane processing. Overall, these results indicate that there are no distinguishable differences between the highly purified, chemically defined sugar produced from conventional or GM varieties.

巴西的Sucro能源部门既生产能源，也生产乙醇燃料，工业蒸汽和电力以及糖。卡纳维埃拉技术中心（CTC）是巴西领先的甘蔗育种公司，已经开发了一系列由昆虫保护的甘蔗品种，以控制甘蔗bore虫的危害。该手稿的目的是介绍三种转基因（GM）甘蔗品种的研究结果，并评估有关原始或精制糖中GM甘蔗DNA或蛋白质可能存在的公开文献。具体而言，在四个单独的地块中种植了两个经过批准的转基因甘蔗品种CTC91087-6和CTC175-A，以及一个实验性CTC品种，以使用标准的较小规模实验室加工方法生产了四批次的原糖。 12个独立批次的原糖。在此，我们报告了事件特异性探针和DNA检测方法的发展，用于检测甘蔗基因组DNA和两个批准的GM品种插入DNA的连接点。使用相同的方法测试由实验性CTC品种制得的糖。使用TaqMan®实时PCR和ELISA分析的方法论验证了由这三个事件（Cry1Ab，Cry1Ac，NPTII和PAT）表达的四种GM蛋白。对于各种事件特异的DNA探针（7.2–25 ng / g糖）以及杀虫和选择标记蛋白（2.9–10.9 ng / g糖），已开发的检测方法的检测限（LOD）极低。在这三个GM甘蔗事件产生的12个独立批次的原糖中，未检测到事件特异性DNA和GM蛋白。这项研究的结果，使用非常敏感的方法并测试了几批糖，扩展了先前研究的结论，本文综述的结果表明在甘蔗加工过程中DNA和蛋白质的广泛降解和去除。总体而言，这些结果表明，从常规或转基因品种生产的高度纯化，化学确定的糖之间没有明显区别。