Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T10:22:25.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Databases on biotechnology and biosafety of GMOs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2003

Giuliano Degrassi
Affiliation:
Biosafety Unit, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Area Science Park, Padriciano 99, 34012 Trieste, Italy
Nevena Alexandrova
Affiliation:
Biosafety Unit, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Area Science Park, Padriciano 99, 34012 Trieste, Italy Present address: Institute of Genetic Engineering, National Centre of Agricultural Sciences, 2232 Kostinbrod, Bulgaria
Decio Ripandelli
Affiliation:
Biosafety Unit, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Area Science Park, Padriciano 99, 34012 Trieste, Italy

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Due to the involvement of scientific, industrial, commercial and public sectors of society, the complexity of the issues concerning the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the environment, agriculture, and human and animal health calls for a wide coverage of information. Accordingly, development of the field of biotechnology, along with concerns related to the fate of released GMOs, has led to a rapid development of tools for disseminating such information. As a result, there is a growing number of databases aimed at collecting and storing information related to GMOs. Most of the sites deal with information on environmental releases, field trials, transgenes and related sequences, regulations and legislation, risk assessment documents, and literature. Databases are mainly established and managed by scientific, national or international authorities, and are addressed towards scientists, government officials, policy makers, consumers, farmers, environmental groups and civil society representatives. This complexity can lead to an overlapping of information. The purpose of the present review is to analyse the relevant databases currently available on the web, providing comments on their vastly different information and on the structure of the sites pertaining to different users. A preliminary overview on the development of these sites during the last decade, at both the national and international level, is also provided.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© ISBR, EDP Sciences, 2003

References

Ahmed, FE (2002) Detection of genetically modified organisms in food. Trends Biotechnol. 20: 215-223 CrossRef
Conner, AJ, Glare, TR, Nap, JP (2003) The release of genetically modified crops into the environment. Part, II. Overview of ecological risk assessment. Plant J. 33: 19-46 CrossRef
Croy RRD (1993) Plant selectable genes, reporter genes and promoters. In Croy RRD, ed, Plant molecular biology labfax, Bios Scientific Publishers, Oxford, UK, pp 149-182
Francisco, M (1999) Biosafety and regulation. Nat. Biotechnol. 17: 89 CrossRef
Gendel, SM (1998a) The use of amino acid sequence alignments to assess potential allergenicity of proteins used in genetically modified foods. Adv. Food Nutr. Res. 42: 45-62 CrossRef
Gendel, SM (1998b) Sequence databases for assessing the potential allergenicity of proteins used in transgenic foods. Adv. Food Nutr. Res. 42: 63-92 CrossRef
Gliddon CJ, Rasch DAMK, Schmidt K, Schutte GAM, Sideridis AB, Yalouris CP (1997) A biometrical decision support system for estimating risk assessments on releasing genetically modified organisms. In Proceedings of the First European Conference for Information Technology in Agriculture. June 15-18, 1997, Copenhagen, Denmark
Havukkala, I (1996) Transgenic rice and rice genome research. Field Crop Res. 45: 27-35 CrossRef
Hileman, RE, Silvanovich, A, Goodman, RE, Rice, EA, Holleschak, G, Astwood, JD, Hefle, SL (2002) Bioinformatic methods for allergenicity assessment using a comprehensive allergen database. Int. Arch. Allergy Imm. 128: 280-291 CrossRef
James C (2002) Global status of commercialized crop: 2002. ISAAA: Ithaca, New York
Kirsop, BH (1993) Development of the Information Resource for the Release of Organisms into the Environment. Biotechnology, R&D Trends - science policy for development. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 700: 173-176 CrossRef
Landsmann, J, Shah, A (1995) BioSearch: Gentechnik-Datenbank der, BBA, 3.Mitteilung. Nachrichtenblatt des Deuthschen Pflanzenschutzdienstes 47: 135
Louwaars, N, Brandenburg, W, Gilissen, L, Kleter, G, Wagenaar, J (2002) The Biosafety Files, a new link in biosafety information. Biotechnol. Dev. Monit. 49: 13-14
Smith AG (1997) Testing the surf: criteria for evaluating Internet information resources. The Public-Access Computer Systems Review (http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html)
Zaid A, Hughes HG, Porceddu E, Nicholas F (2001) Glossary of biotechnology for food and agriculture. A revised and augmented edition of the Glossary of biotechnology and genetic engineering. Publishing and Multimedia Service, FAO, Rome, Italy