Ligation detection reaction and universal array for detection and identification of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Recently, genetically modified plants, organisms containing alien DNA which confers to the novel plants advantageous characteristics, were introduced in agriculture and then in the food chain. For this reason, intense public and political debate are held about them and how they relate to environmental, food and feed safety. Since the European Union allows importation only to genetically modified (GM)-maize and GM-soybean and forbid to cultivate GMOs in Europe, it is of primary importance the possibility to detect, identify and quantify genetically modified organism (GMO) in the novel food. To this purpose the European Union has financed a 3 years project, named "DNA-TRACK", in order to develop and validate techniques for these kinds of inspections. Ligation Detection Reaction coupled to microarray technique can be a useful tool for detection, identification and quantification of different GMOs in a single experiment. To date, we successfully developed a universal DNA-microarray able to detect and identify the GM-Roundup Ready Soybean. As soon as the other GMOs sequences will be available, (GMOs sequences are patented and so difficult to obtain), a complete DNA-microarray will be developed and tested to identify and quantify the GMO content of raw material or foods.