The maize event MON94804 was developed through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of maize tissue with plasmid vector PV-ZMAP527892. Aim of the modification is a reduction of gibberellic acid (GA) levels in the stalk, leading to reduction of internode length and reduced overall plant height.

The initially inserted T-DNA carries 2 cassettes:

• the GA20ox-SUP suppression cassette containing five elements (CS-GA20ox-SUP xxxx-RNAi-MAIZE) to express a micro RNA (miRNA) to downregulate the expression of the GA20ox3 and GA20ox5 genes to reduce levels of GA
• a cp4-epsps expression cassette (CS-cp4-epsps) as a selection marker, flanked by loxP recombination sites

After MON94804 was selected as a successful transformant, the selectable marker cassette was excised by crossing MON94804 with a Cre recombinase expressing line, to remove the cp4-epsps expression cassette. The Cre line was transformed with the vector PV-ZMOO513642.

NGS analysis, PCR and sequencing of the transgene region confirmed that a single copy of the T-DNA was integrated into the genome of MON94804 and no unintentional sequences derived from vector PV-ZMAP527892 or vector PV-ZMOO513642 were inserted. NGS analysis of multiple generations confirmed that the transgene was stably inherited.

Not MON94804 as single product but stacked products, made via traditional breeding, are the aimed commercial products.

Sources:

1. EFSA document: Application submitted under regulation (EC) No 1829/2003: Part VII Summary - MON94804
2. Summary of Application - Japanese ministry of the environment (machine translation of the document)