Chemical fingerprinting for the evaluation of unintended secondary metabolic changes in transgenic food crops.
A common element in designed guidelines for assessment of the food safety of transgenic crops is centred on a comparative analytical analysis with conventionally bred crop plants, assuming that these products have a long history of safe use (i.e. OECD-principle of substantial equivalence). In this study we examine the utility of an off-line combination of 400 MHz proton (1H)-NMR spectroscopy and liquid chromatography (LC) for the multi-component comparison of low-molecular weight compounds (i.e. chemical fingerprinting) in complex plant matrices. The developed NMR-methodology can contribute to the demonstration of substantial equivalence by its ability to compare possible compositional alterations in a novel food crop with respect to related non-transgenic reference lines. In this respect a hierarchical approach is proposed by comparing the chemical fingerprints of the transgenic crop plant to those of: (1) isogenic parental or closely related lines bred at identical and multiple sites; (2) extended ranges of commercial varieties of that plant; and (3) downstream processing effects. This is of importance to assess the likelihood that some of the statistical differences in a transgenic crop plant may be false positives due to chance alone or arose from natural genetic and/or physiologic variations.
Noteborn
H P
HP
DLO-State Institute for Quality Control of Agricultural Products (RIKILT-DLO), Wageningen, The Netherlands. h.p.j.m.noteborn@rikilt.dlo.nl
Lommen
A
A
van der Jagt
R C
RC
Weseman
J M
JM
D000818:Animals; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D019649:Food Industry / Q000592:standards; D020868:Gene Silencing; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007306:Insecticides; D007915:Lepidoptera; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D010641:Phenotype; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011522:Protons; D016372:RNA, Antisense
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D007306:Insecticides; D011522:Protons; D016372:RNA, Antisense