An article in this month’s Plant Physiology reports on the “Comparison of Tuber Proteomes of Potato Varieties, Landraces, and Genetically Modified Lines,” a study conducted by Satu J. Lehesranta and colleagues of the University of Kuopio, Finland. Using 2-dimensional protein electrophoresis, researchers compared 32 non-genetically modified (GM) genotypes, 21 tetraploid cultivars, 8 landraces, and 3 diploid lines.

Researchers found that only 9 out of 730 proteins showed significant differences between GM lines and their controls. There was much less variation between GM lines and their non-GM controls, compared with that found between different varieties and landraces. Moreover, no new proteins unique to individual GM lines were observed; thus, there was no evidence for any major changes in protein pattern in the GM lines tested.

Read more in this month’s Plant Physiology. The article appears on pp. 1690-1699 of the journal.