Safety assessment for genetically modified sweet pepper and tomato.
The coat protein (CP) gene of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was cloned from a Chinese CMV isolate, the CaMV promoter and NOS terminator added and the gene construct was transformed into both sweet pepper and tomato plants to confer resistance to CMV. Safety assessments of these genetically modified (GM) plants were conducted. It was found that these two GM products showed no genotoxicity either in vitro or in vivo by the micronucleus test, sperm aberration test and Ames test. Animal feeding studies showed no significant differences in growth, body weight gain, food consumption, hematology, blood biochemical indices, organ weights and histopathology between rats or mice of either sex fed with either GM sweet pepper or tomato diets compared with those with non-GM diets. These results demonstrate that the CMV-resistant sweet pepper and tomato are comparable to the non-GM counterparts in terms of food safety.
Chen
Zhang-Liang
ZL
The National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. zhchen@pku.edu.cn
Gu
Hongya
H
Li
Yi
Y
Su
Yilan
Y
Wu
Ping
P
Jiang
Zhicheng
Z
Ming
Xiaotian
X
Tian
Jinhua
J
Pan
Naisui
N
Qu
Li-Jia
LJ
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002212:Capsicum / Q000235:genetics*; D017799:Cucumovirus / Q000235:genetics; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D030841:Food, Genetically Modified / Q000633:toxicity*; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D015162:Micronucleus Tests; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000254:growth & development*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000002:abnormalities