​Rapid genetically modified organism (GMO) screening of various food products and animal feeds using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Abstract

The revolution of agriculture through biotechnology have produced large-scale of genetically modified crops which brought up a controversy on the safety usage of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It has been implemented globally that all GMO products and its derived ingredients should have regulations on the usage and labelling. Thus, it is necessary to develop methods that allow rapid screening of GMO products to comply with the regulations. This study employed a reliable and flexible multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for the rapid detection of transgenic elements in genetically modified soy and maize along with the soybean LECTIN gene and maize ZEIN gene respectively. The selected four common transgenic elements were 35S promoter (35S); Agrobacterium tumefaciens nopaline synthase terminator (NOS); 5-enolypyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (epsps) gene; and Cry1Ab delta-endotoxin (cry1Ab) gene. Optimization of the multiplex PCR methods were carried out by using 1% Roundup Ready TM Soybean (RRS) as the certified reference material for soybean that produced fourplex PCR method detecting 35S promoter, NOS terminator, epsps gene and soybean LECTIN gene and by using 1% MON810 as the certified reference material for maize that produced triplex PCR method detecting 35S promoter, cry1Ab gene and maize ZEIN gene prior to screening of the GMO traits in various food products and animal feeds. 1/9 (11.1%) of the animal feed contained maize and 1/15 (6.7%) of the soybean food products showed positive results for the detection of GMO transgenic gene. None of the maize food products showed positive results for GMO transgenic gene. In total, approximately 4% of the food products and animal feed were positive as GMO. This indicated GMOs have not widely entered the food chain. However, it is necessary to have an appropriate screening method due to GMOs' unknown potential risk to humans and to animals. This rapid screening method will provide leverage in terms of being economically wise, time saving and reliable.