Research Publications (Food Safety)

The potato chloroplast was transformed with codon optimized synthetic hybrid cry gene (SN19) to mitigate crop losses by Colorado potato beetle (CPB). The bombarded explants (leaves and internode) were cultured on MS medium supplemented with BAP (2.0 mg/l), NAA (0.2 mg/l), TDZ (2.0 mg/l) and GA3 (0.1 mg/l); spectinomycin 50 mg/l was used as a selection agent in the medium.

The co-expression of multiple antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in genetically modified (GM) crops can give plants a broader antibacterial spectrum and lower the pathogen risk of drug resistance. Therefore, four penaeidins (shrimp-derived AMPs) were fused and encoded in an artificial gene (PEN1234), driven by the seed-specific promoter Pzein, with the aim of co-expression in seeds of transgenic rice.

Traditional breeding techniques, applied incrementally over thousands of years, have yielded huge benefits in the characteristics of agricultural animals. This is a result of significant, measurable changes to the genomes of those animal species and breeds. Genome editing techniques may now be applied to achieve targeted DNA sequence alterations, with the potential to affect traits of interest to production of agricultural animals in just one generation.

Genetically modified (GM) organisms and crops have been a feature of food production for over 30 years. Despite extensive science-based risk assessment, the public and many politicians remain concerned with the genetic manipulation of crops, particularly food crops. Many governments have addressed public concern through biosafety legislation and regulatory frameworks that identify and regulate risks to ensure human health and environmental safety.

An investigation of the potential allergenicity of newly expressed proteins in genetically modified (GM) crops comprises part of the assessment of GM crop safety. However, allergenicity is not completely predictable from a definitive assay result or set of protein characteristics, and scientific opinions regarding the data that should be used to assess allergenicity are continuously evolving.

Abstract

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs) together with CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins have catalysed a revolution in genetic engineering. Native CRISPR-Cas systems exist in many bacteria and archaea where they provide an adaptive immune response through sequence-specific degradation of an invading pathogen’s genome.

Standard food safety assessments of genetically modified crops require a thorough molecular characterization of the novel DNA as inserted into the plant that is intended for commercialization, as well as a comparison of agronomic and nutritional characteristics of the genetically modified to the non-modified counterpart.

To date, there have been 160 regulatory approvals for environmental safety in Japan for the major genetically modified (GM) crops, including corn, soybean, canola and cotton. Confined field trials (CFTs) have been conducted in Japan for all single events, which contain various traits. The accumulated information from these previously conducted CFTs, as well as the agronomic field study data from other countries, provides a rich source of information to establish “familiarity” with the crops.

EchAMP, the tenth most abundant transcript expressed in the mammary gland of echidna, has in vitro broad-spectrum antibacterial effects. However, the effects of EchAMP on mastitis, a condition where inflammation is triggered following mammary gland infection, has not been investigated. To investigate the impact of EchAMP against mastitis, EchAMP transgenic mice were generated.