title: Poisonous or non-poisonous plants? DNA-based tools and applications for accurate identification.
abstract: Plant exposures are among the most frequently reported cases to poison control centres worldwide. This is a growing condition due to recent societal trends oriented towards the consumption of wild plants as food, cosmetics, or medicine. At least three general causes of plant poisoning can be identified: plant misidentification, introduction of new plant-based supplements and medicines with no controls about their safety, and the lack of regulation for the trading of herbal and phytochemical products. Moreover, an efficient screening for the occurrence of plants poisonous to humans is also desirable at the different stages of the food supply chain: from the raw material to the final transformed product. A rapid diagnosis of intoxication cases is necessary in order to provide the most reliable treatment. However, a precise taxonomic characterization of the ingested species is often challenging. In this review, we provide an overview of the emerging DNA-based tools and technologies to address the issue of poisonous plant identification. Specifically, classic DNA barcoding and its applications using High Resolution Melting (Bar-HRM) ensure high universality and rapid response respectively, whereas High Throughput Sequencing techniques (HTS) provide a complete characterization of plant residues in complex matrices. The pros and cons of each approach have been evaluated with the final aim of proposing a general user's guide to molecular identification directed to different stakeholder categories interested in the diagnostics of poisonous plants.
authors: ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, P.za Della Scienza 2, 20126, Milan, Italy.
authors: Valerio
authors: V
authors: Mezzasalma
authors: Institute of Applied Biosciences, CERTH, Thermi, Thessaloniki, 570 01, Greece.|Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54 124, Greece.
authors: Ioannis
authors: I
authors: Ganopoulos
authors: ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, P.za Della Scienza 2, 20126, Milan, Italy.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Galimberti
authors: DISTAV, Università di Genova, Corso Europa 26, 16132, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Cornara
authors: FEM2 Ambiente s.r.l., P.za della Scienza 2, 20126, Milan, Italy.
authors: Emanuele
authors: E
authors: Ferri
authors: ZooPlantLab, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, P.za Della Scienza 2, 20126, Milan, Italy. massimo.labra@unimib.it.
authors: Massimo
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1065-5804
authors: M
authors: Labra
mesh_terms: D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D053593:Forensic Toxicology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D010947:Plants, Toxic / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant
keywords: Alkaloids; DNA barcoding; Food supply chain; Molecular identification; Poison centres; Secondary metabolites