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Metabolomics and the Detection of Unintended Effects in Genetically Modified Crops

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Plant-derived Natural Products

Abstract

The chapter describes current procedures for the safety assessment of genetically modified crops and foods. The concepts of substantial equivalence, the conventional comparator, and intended and unintended effects are introduced. Most published examples of substantial equivalence testing deal with crops that have been modified for insect resistance or herbicide tolerance. A standard procedure has developed based on broadly similar field trial designs, sampling schemes and targeted analyses of a consensus set of compounds for each crop. The main characteristics of the procedure are summarised with reference to published analyses of this type of crop and different statistical approaches to judging ‘equivalence’ are discussed.

There is a current trend towards development of crops with enhanced nutritional properties or health-related benefits through genetic modification of metabolic pathways. These more complex modifications have greater potential for introducing unpredictable unintended effects, and it may be advisable to supplement current targeted analysis procedures with metabolomics methods. The second part of the chapter discusses the application of metabolomics to substantial equivalence testing. As yet there is no standard procedure for this approach so individual studies, which differ greatly in size and scope, are discussed. The major analytical techniques (GC/MS, LC/MS and NMR) are briefly described and examples of their use are given: a few studies have shown how the massive amounts of data produced by non-targeted profiling methods may be treated to judge equivalence. Some limitations need to be overcome before metabolomics can be adopted as part of the official safety assessment procedure.

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Abbreviations

2D:

Two-dimensional

ANOVA:

Analysis of Variance

AOAC:

Association of Analytical Communities

COSY:

Correlation Spectroscopy

DIMS:

Direct Injection Mass Spectrometry

DP:

Degree of Polymerisation

EFSA:

European Food Safety Authority

ESI:

Electrospray Ionisation

FAO/WHO:

Food and Agriculture Organisation/ World Health Organisation

FIE-MS:

Flow Injection Electrospray Mass Spectrometry

FT-ICR-MS:

Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry

FTIR:

Fourier Transform Infrared

GC/FID:

Gas Chromatography/ Flame Ionisation Detector

GC/MS:

Gas Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry

GC-TOF-MS:

Gas Chromatography-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry

GM:

Genetically Modified

HMBC:

Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Correlation

HPLC:

High Performance Liquid Chromatography

HSQC:

Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence

ILSI:

International Life Sciences Institute

LC/MS:

Liquid Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry

LDA:

Linear Discriminant Analysis

MAS:

Magic Angle Spinning

NMR:

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

PC:

Principal Component

PCA:

Principal Component Analysis

PLS:

Partial Least Squares

PLS-DA:

Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis

RT:

Retention Time

SD:

Standard Deviation

SPE:

Solid Phase Extraction

TOCSY:

Total Correlation Spectroscopy

UV:

Ultraviolet

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UA, UK

    Laetitia Shintu, Gwénaëlle Le Gall & Ian J. Colquhoun

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  1. Laetitia Shintu
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  2. Gwénaëlle Le Gall
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  3. Ian J. Colquhoun
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Correspondence to Ian J. Colquhoun .

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    Shintu, L., Le Gall, G., Colquhoun, I.J. (2009). Metabolomics and the Detection of Unintended Effects in Genetically Modified Crops. In: Osbourn, A., Lanzotti, V. (eds) Plant-derived Natural Products. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85498-4_22

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