The Cry1Ab Protein Has Minor Effects on the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities after Five Seasons of Continuous Bt Maize Cultivation

The cultivation of genetically modified plants (GMP) has raised concerns regarding the plants’ ecological safety. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to assess the impact of five seasons of continuous Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) maize cultivation on the colonisation and community structure of the non-target organisms arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the maize roots, bulk soils and rhizospheric soils using the terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of the 28S ribosomal DNA and sequencing methods. AMF colonisation was significantly higher in the two Bt maize lines that express Cry1Ab, 5422Bt1 (event Bt11) and 5422CBCL (MON810) than in the non-Bt isoline 5422. No significant differences were observed in the diversity of the AMF community between the roots, bulk soils and rhizospheric soils of the Bt and non-Bt maize cultivars. The AMF genus Glomus was dominant in most of the samples, as detected by DNA sequencing. A clustering analysis based on the DNA sequence data suggested that the sample types (i.e., the samples from the roots, bulk soils or rhizospheric soils) might have greater influence on the AMF community phylotypes than the maize cultivars. This study indicated that the Cry1Ab protein has minor effects on the AMF communities after five seasons of continuous Bt maize cultivation.