Although 47.6% less aflatoxin accumulation was observed for OmtA-12 homozygous line, the difference in aflatoxin levels between the OmtA-12 and its null control was only borderline significant ( p < 0.058) ( Figure 4 A).
Subsequent laboratory KSA reassessment using homozygous kernels in the T3 generation observed a highly significant reduction in aflatoxin accumulation (ranging from 81.3% to 98.8%) in the transgenic compared to their null controls in the OmtA-6, 7, 10, and 12 events ( Figure 2 ).
The transgenic T1 kernels from four (OmtA-6, 7, 10, and 12) out of the five events exhibited lower mean aflatoxin production than those without the omtA transgene, although the difference is not statistically significant except for OmtA-7 and OmtA-12, which were at borderline significance with p -values ranging from 0.056 to 0.063 ( Table S1 ).