FIGURE 3.

Comparison of the soil microbial composition in plots with the transgenic event 1521K059 versus plots with the wild-type clone FGN-K. Soil samples were collected from plots 24 months after either planting event 1521K059 or the corresponding wild-type clone FGN-K. To evaluate the microbial population diversity based on 16S rRNA sequencing, the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) was performed using the QIIME alpha diversity pipeline (lower panel). Additionally, colony-forming unit (CFU) analyses were conducted on five biological replicates to assess the microbial densities (upper panel). Both analyses found no significant differences in the microbial diversity or CFUs between 1521K059 and wild-type FGN-K samples (Tukey’s test at the 5% significance level).