<p style="text-align: justify;">CBH-351 maize was produced by biolistic transformation of the backcrossed hybrid maize line (PA91 x H99) x H99 with two pUC19 based plasmids, PRSVA9909 and pDE110. Both plasmids contained the modified <i>cry9C</i> gene and the <i>bar</i> gene, respectively, engineered for enhanced expression in plants. The <i>cry9C</i> and <i>bar</i> genes were fused to noncoding regulatory sequences that enabled them to be expressed at high levels, constitutively throughout most of the plant. Specifically, the expression of the modified <i>cry9C</i> gene was regulated by the promoter and terminator sequences from the 35S transcript of CaMV, along with the leader sequence of the <i>cab22L</i> gene from petunia. The expression of the <i>bar</i> gene was also directed by the 35S CaMV promoter along with the 3&#39; untranslated region from the nopaline synthase (<i>nos</i>) gene from <i>A. tumefaciens</i> which is involved in transcription termination and polyadenylation. Although most of these regulatory regions were derived from plant pathogens, the regulatory sequences cannot cause plant disease by themselves or with the genes that they are designed to regulate. Additional genetic elements present on the transforming plasmids included the ampicillin resistance gene beta-lactamase (<i>bla</i>) and the origin of replication (ori) both from the enteric bacterium, <i>Escherichia coli</i>. Both were introduced into CBH-351 maize, however these elements are nonfunctional in plants. The <i>bla</i> gene was present on the plasmids only as a selectable marker to detect transformed <i>E. coli</i> host bacteria.</p>
