Common Viral Promoter in GE Foods May Pose Human Health Risks

[nosmokes]

original

Common Viral Promoter in GE Foods May Pose Human Health Risks

Posted 11/15/05

From: <www.twnside.org.sg
Title : 35S CaMV promoter is active in some human intestinal cells
Date : 13 November 2005 Contents: THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE

Dear Friends and colleagues,

RE: 35S CaMV promoter is active in some human intestinal cells

The 35S promoter of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) is a general, strong plant promoter. It has been used to secure expression of the transgene in most genetically engineered (GE) crop plants commercialized so far.

It has been claimed that the 35S promoter is plant-specific and would not be active in mammalian cells, and hence would not pose risks linked to the consumption of GE food and feed in the event that plant DNA fragments are taken up from the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. However, this claim has not been supported by experimental data.

On the contrary, there have already been published reports indicating that this assumption might be incorrect, for example, previous research has indicated the potential of the 35S promoter to be active in mammalian systems. More recently, direct evidence that the 35S promoter is active in mammalian cell cultures has been presented.

Of particular importance are the cells lining the intestinal wall, given that the gastrointestinal tract will be the first site of exposure to GE food and feed.
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[Ian David]

1. Where's the study? n/t

[nosmokes]

2. there should be a link or a URL at the original

[Ian David]

3. Here's the abstract

I don't know enough about the subject to evaluate the claim.

Anyone?


REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2005/C

The 35S CaMV plant virus promoter is active in human enterocyte-like cells

European Food Reseach and Technology (2005) DOI 10.1007/s00217-005-0154-3

Marit R. Myhre (2, 4), Kristin A. Fenton (4), Julia Eggert (3), Kaare M. Nielsen (3) and Terje Traavik (1, 2)

(1) GENOK-Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, Science Park, N-9294 Tromsø,
Norway
(2) Department of Microbiology and Virology, Institute of Medical Biology, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromso, Norway (3) Department of Pharmacy, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
(4) Both authors have contributed equally, University of Tromso, N-9037
Tromso, Norway

Received: 22 May 2005 Accepted: 5 September 2005 Published online: 20
October 2005

Abstract The 35S cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) promoter is commonly used to drive transgene expression in the genetically engineered (GE) crop plants that have been commercialized so far. Whether, and how far, the 35S promoter might be active in mammalian cells has been scientifically unsettled and controversial. Very recently it was established that the 35S promoter is transcriptionally active following transient reporter gene transfections in continuous cell lines of human and hamster ovary fibroblasts. The initial exposure of a human organism to DNA from GE food takes place in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Hence, we have now investigated the promoter capacity of 35S in human enterocyte-like cells. We constructed expression vectors with 35S promoter inserted in front of two reporter genes encoding firefly luciferase and green fluorescent protein (GFP), respectively, and performed transient transfection experiments in the human enterocyte-like cell line Caco-2. It was demonstrated that the 35S CaMV promoter was able to drive the expression of both reporter genes to significant levels, although the protein expression levels might seem modest compared to those obtained with the strong promoters derived from human cytomegalo virus (hCMV) and simian virus 40 (SV40). Furthermore, computer-based searches of the 35S CaMV DNA sequence for putative mammalian transcription factor binding motifs gave a high number of hits. Some of the identified motifs indicate that transcriptional activation by the 35S CaMV promoter may be stronger in other human and animal cell types than in those investigated so far.