GMO Screening

ifp offers a general screening procedure as a first step towards determining genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food and animal feed samples. This screening procedure serves to detect various DNA sequences that are used very frequently in a variety of GMO. General statements about existing GM lines in food and animal feed can therefore be derived from specific combinations of various screening elements. In the event of a negative result, analysis will be complete at this stage.

Molecular biological detection of typical screening elements

For a long time, the 35S promotor and the NOS terminator have been the most relevant regulatory genetic elements in plant biotechnology, which is why analysing these two parameters allowed for a nearly gapless screening of existing GMO. Modern GMO analysis, however, does not solely rely on P-35S and T-NOS anymore when assessing the absence or presence of GMO in a sample. More and more recently approved events contain other regulatory elements instead. Besides various promotors and terminators it is also common to screen for frequently used genes coding for different resistance properties.

ifp Institut für Produktqualität offers the analysis for the following screening elements:

  • P-35S: promotor sequence from cauliflower mosaic virus
  • T-NOS: terminator sequence of nopaline synthase from soil bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens
  • bar: phosphinotricin N-acetyl-transferase from Streptomyces hygroscopicus resistance: to the herbicide phosphinotricin (gluphosinat, e.g. LibertyLink and Basta)
  • CTP2-CP4EPSPS: intersection of chloroplast-transit peptide to 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase; from Arabidopsis thaliana and Agrobacterium sp. resistence: to herbicide Roundup Ready
  • P-35S-pat: intersection of promotor of cauliflower mosaic virus to phosphinotricin-acetyltransferase from Streptomyces viridochromogenes
  • nptII: marker gene: neomycin phosphotransferase
  • pat: phosphinotricin N-acetyltransferase from Streptomyces viridochromogenes resistance: to the herbicide phosphinotricin (glufosinate, e.g. LibertyLink and Basta)
  • P-FMV: promotor from figwort mosaic virus

 The ifp Institut für Produktqualität currently has a total of 17 different screening elements.