Safety assessment of transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis rice T1c‐19 in Sprague–Dawley rats from metabonomics and bacterial profile perspectives

Abstract

SummaryBacillus thuringiensis rice is facing commercialization as the main food source in the near future. The unintended effects of genetically modified (GM) organisms are the most important barriers to their promotion. We aimed to establish a new in vivo evaluation model for genetically modified foods by using metabonomics and bacterial profile approaches. T1c-19 rice flour or its transgenic parent MH63 was used at 70% wt/wt to produce diets that were fed to rats for 90 days. Urine metabolite changes were detected using 1 H NMR. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect the bacterial profiles between the two groups. The metabonomics was analyzed for metabolite changes in rat urine, when compared with the non-GM rice group, where rats were fed a GM rice diet. Several metabolites correlated with rat age and sex but not with GM rice diet. Significant biological differences were not identified between the GM rice diet and the non-GM rice diet. The bacteria related to rat urine metabolites were also discussed. The results from metabonomics and bacterial profile analyses were comparable with the results attained using the traditional method. Because metabonomics and bacterial profiling offer noninvasive, dynamic approaches for monitoring food safety, they provide a novel process for assessing the safety of GM foods.

A foresight study on emerging technologies: State of the art of Omics technologies and potential applications in food and feed safety

“…Two studies assessed the effects of consuming GM food after consumption in either rats (Cao et al 2012) or zebrafish . Cao et al (2012) fed rats for 90 days with either T1c-19 GM rice flour or its non-transgenic MH63.…”

“…Cao et al (2012) fed rats for 90 days with either T1c-19 GM rice flour or its non-transgenic MH63. The rice made up 70% wt/wt of the diet.…”

“…This approach has been applied by using either rats (Cao et al 2012) or zebrafishes . Due to the limited number of parameters tested and application of very high doses, these studies yield very limited information about risk assessment.…”

“…Although this approach is interesting, it is very difficult to link an effect on one gene in zebrafish to implications for risk assessment for humans. In another study (Cao et al, 2012), rats were fed for 90 days to T1c-19 rice flour or its transgenic parent MH63 at 70% wt/wt. (1)H NMR analysis on urine sampled every month detected changes in levels of creatine, citric acid, a-ketoglutarate and hippurate.…”

“…About the study of Cao et al (2012) the question remains whether toxic effects might be induced that cannot be detected in urine (with the presently used method). About the study of , the approach and findings are interesting.…”