Brian EllisBiotechnology Laboratory - UBCMay 02, 2001

Health Canada is mandatedto ensure that the Canadianpublic is not put at risk fromfood or health care productsHC must assess all novel foods

From other geographic regionsFrom new manufacturing processesFrom plant breeding

History of safe human consumption?Contains known toxicants?Nutritional value altered?

Development and evaluationof new genotypes1. Create variation2. Select3. Repeat.

1. creates new allelic combinations within a species genome2. samples mutational / recombinational changes

Progeny EvaluationExisting varietiesDistantly related speciesInduced mutantsClosely-related speciesLandracesSelections

barley is barley is barley long history highly selected

derived from known (GRAS)germplasmvery few new genetic elementsadded to parental variety

Do a comprehensive (and slowand expensive) food safety assessment ?

or assume that the genetic background is benign,assess traits directly related to the transgene, andestablish substantial equivalence

comparison of the GMO productwith the conventional assesses differences between themfocuses on the transgene and on hallmarks of conventional genotype

Focuses on most likely impactsUses established methodologies

Assumes linear responses to genetic changeUses targeted rather than global analytical methodologies

Differential gene expression in the Arabidopsis hypocotylwildtypeein 4 mutantS. Regan, Carleton U.

Cellular systems are highly integrated at all levelsPlant metabolism is extraordinarilyplastic - adapted to creation of new metabolites

Fiehn et al, Nature Biotechnology (2000)Metabolic shifts induced by single-gene changesin Arabidopsis thalianadgd-1sdd-1

Assume that pleiotropic effectswill occur in GMO organismsDevelop and adopt global profiling methodologies Focus safety assessment on revealed differences