Transgenesis affects endogenous soybean allergen levels less than traditional breeding

Area of Science:

• Food safety assessment
• Allergenicity of genetically modified (GM) crops
• Plant breeding and biotechnology

Background:

• The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) mandates quantification of endogenous allergen levels in genetically modified (GM) crops considered major allergenic foods.
• This requirement is part of the compositional characterization for GM crop safety assessments.
• Concerns exist regarding the necessity and scientific basis of this requirement, especially for crops like soybean.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of transgenesis on endogenous allergen levels in soybean compared to traditional breeding methods.
• To assess whether current allergy science supports the EFSA's requirement for allergen quantification in GM crops.
• To provide data-driven insights into the safety assessment of GM soybean.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of endogenous allergen levels in GM soybean, non-GM soybean isoline grain, and concurrently grown non-GM commercial reference varieties.
• Utilized scatter plots to visually compare mean allergen levels between different soybean groups.
• Employed quantitative analysis using the line of identity (y = x) to assess the degree of change caused by transgenesis and traditional breeding.

Main Results:

• Scatter plots demonstrated that transgenesis resulted in less alteration of endogenous allergen levels in soybean compared to traditional breeding methods.
• Quantitative analysis confirmed that the line of identity provided a good fit to the datasets, indicating minimal changes.
• The data suggests that the risk of altering allergen levels is negligible with transgenesis relative to conventional breeding.

Conclusions:

• Transgenesis causes significantly less change in endogenous allergen levels in soybean than traditional breeding practices.
• The current scientific understanding of allergy does not substantiate the mandatory requirement for quantifying allergen levels in GM crops for safety assessments.
• Re-evaluation of EFSA's regulatory requirements regarding allergen quantification in GM crops is warranted based on scientific evidence.