COMMON DNA-SEQUENCES WITH POTENTIAL FOR DETECTION OF GENETICALLY MANIPULATED ORGANISMS IN FOOD

Foods produced by genetic engineering technology are now appearing on the market and many more are likely to emerge in the future. The safet y aspects, regulation, and labelling of these foods are still contenti ous issues in most countries and recent surveys highlight consumer con cerns about the safety and labelling of genetically modified food. In most countries it is necessary to have approval for the use of genetic ally manipulated organisms (GMOs) in the production of food. In order to police regulations, a technology to detect such foods is desirable. In addition, a requirement to label approved genetically modified foo d would necessitate a monitoring system. One solution is to 'tag' appr oved GMOs with some form of biological or genetic marker, permitting t he surveillance of foods for the presence of approved products of gene tic engineering. While non-approved GMOs would not be detected by such a surveillance, they might be detected by a screen for DNA sequences common to all or most GMOs. This review focuses on the potential of us ing common DNA sequences as detection probes for GMOs. The identificat ion of vector sequences, plant transcription terminators, and marker g enes by PCR and hybridization techniques is discussed.