OTUs of Streptosporangiaceae and Frankiaceae were present only during flowering stage (4% relative abundance) while that of Geodermatophilaceae were also present during branching in addition to the flowering stage with relative abundance of 10 and 6%. Kineosporaceae and Actisymmetaceae buy MM-102 resembling OTUs were present only during maturation stage with 7 and 23% relative abundance, respectively. Streptomycetaceae group was confined to the post-harvest stage (20% relative abundance). Nakamurellaceae was detected

during branching and maturation stages with 25 and 12% relative abundance, respectively while Pseudonocardiaceae only during flowering stage (12.5% relative abundance) (Figure 4). However, Thermomonosporaceae in addition to post-harvest stage (20%), was also detected during maturation stage (18% abundance) along with Corynebacteriaceae (5%). Except Nakamurellaceae, most of the OTUs of such VX-680 exclusive groups of the non-Bt and Bt crop were affiliated with the reference strains that mostly originated from the soil / rhizospheric soil of the plants (Table S3 and S4). In the present study, Micrococaceae and Nocardioidaceae were found to be the dominant group SB431542 cell line in cultivated soils. These taxa have been selectively enriched by the increased organic input to the soil [47, 48], and also frequently detected in the manure and organic compost treated soils [49, 50]. OTUs belonging to the exclusive groups in non-Bt and Bt planted soils

as discussed above, are probably due to the specific nature of root exudates whose quantity and quality are likely to change via Cry1Ac gene based modification [3]. Rengel et al. [51] suggested that the resulting variations in the root exudates could be caused by the transformation of the plants. However, these exclusive actinomycetes groups were restricted MRIP to only a few growth stages of non-Bt and Bt crop. Also, the relative abundance of these OTUs for both the crops did not exceed the dominant taxa (Arthrobacter and Nocardia) as found for both the crops. Our findings corroborate with the result of Weinert et al. [52] wherein the genetic modification effect is more prominent only at the maturation stage compared

to others in transgenic potato. Thus, it could be inferred that the genetic modification of brinjal using Cry1Ac gene, will have little impact on distribution of the dominant microbial groups (Micrococaceae and Nocardiodaceae). Under the control of constructive promoter, the transgene Cry1Ac was expressed in all parts of the transgenic brinjal plant, throughout the entire cropping period [21]. However, the transgene was detected only during the flowering stage in the rhizospheric soils of Bt brinjal (data not shown). Sims and Holden [53] reported 50% decrease in the insecticidal activity of the Cry1Ab protein during 1.6 days, and 90% decrease within 15 days. Various studies suggested rapid degradation of Cry proteins but the reports are mostly contradictory [5].