Flavr Savr Tomatoes

Flavr Savr Tomatoes is one of genetically modified (GM) product that was first developed by a biotechnological company, Calgene. Flavr Savr was modified by using antisense technology. By using this technology, the tomatoes will be better in quality; include : taste, physical appearance, and shelf life. Generally, traditional tomatoes must be picked from the vine while still green in order to maintain their firmness during transport to the market. After the tomatoes arrive at their destination, they are sprayed with ethylene. Ethylene is a substance that cause fruits ripeness. But it just happen on the outside of tomatoes, whereas the inside are not totally ripe, it is cause the taste of tomatoes decrease. To solve this problem, Calgene was modified traditional tomatoes to Flavr Savr that has ripen taste and easily to transport. Flavr Savr was designed to ripen on the vine with minimal softening. Antisense technology is an approach that done by calgene to less enzyme which has a role on fruit ripeness process. That enzyme called PG (Polyglukanase). The PG enzyme is responsible to breakdown pectin ( a building block in cell wall, gives the tomatoes their firmness). Antisense technology can disabling PG. This disabling, slow down tomatoes softening, allowing them to be transported to their consumer destination ripe. Antisense technology on tomatoes applied by adding the copy of DNA PG antisense on the tomatoes genom. When that gene transcribed, gene will generate complementary bases of the actual PG DNA sequence from two RNA strain base pairs that cause disability of RNA to produce PG enzyme during translation, result in fruit ripeness slow down. After the Flavr Savr produced, the next important step is to address the safety of consuming the tomatoes. Before go to the market it must fill requirement of FDA (Food and Drugs Association) and Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) standard. Major concerns regarding the safety of the tomato are as follows : 1. Does insertion of DNA into the tomato genome change tomato in any way to disqualify it as food? 2. Do level of toxin fall in acceptable range? 3. Do gene products produced by Kan-r gene within acceptable limit?
4. Will this genetically modified tomato be safe enough for human consumption ?
5. How different in terms of taste and nutrition is this tomato from the natural grown tomato?

Table 1. FDA policy For Flavr Savr Tomato

Safety Tests Performed	Result
¨ Tested environmental safety of the use of Kanamycin resistance gene	No environmental hazard present
¨ Compared Nutritional Profiles of Flavr Savr to the Natural variety ( especially on Vitamin C and A )	Found no significant difference between Flavr Savr with control parental line & no difference in Lycopene level or Beta-Carotene ( vit A ) level.
¨ Tested Toxicity of naturally occurring toxin ( ie Tomatine ).	Tomatine occur in green plants, its concentration decrease during ripening,
¨ Tested the “ new introduced substance” - APH 3’ II	It’s found to be quickly degraded/inactivated by stomach acid & digestive enzymes
¨ Tested whether a large amount of of orally administered antibiotic can be inactivated by APH 3’II under abnormal stomach condition	only a small fraction of antibiotic was inhibited \ no significant inactivation of kanamycin was observed in vitro.
¨ Tested whether Resistance gene can “leak” out to pathogenic microbes in the intestinal track or in soil	No known mechanism is found to test this aspect. ( i.e found no method that gene can be transferred from a plant chromosome to a microbe, thus, low or no possibility of transfering of gene )

Based on the research that had done, we can know that Flavr savr is for safe human consumption with the facts as follow :

· The inserted DNA sequence is proven stable

The insertion of DNA sequence to the tomatoes genome has to test to know whether the sequence stable or not. Unstability of the sequence indicate the insertion is not successful and would also indicate a problem in controlling the inserted sequence. Result show that the insertion of DNA sequence to the tomato is stable.

· Toxin level on Flavr Savr is within acceptable range

Naturally, tomatoes contain toxin substance that called Glycoalkaloids. Glycoalkaloids on tomatoes are Solanine and alpha-tomatine. Solanine is primary toxic compound on the tomatoes and more toxic than tomatine but its concentration is much lower. The research indicate that solanine concentration is too low to cause any health hazard.

Alpha-tomatine is commonly used as insect repellent and most abundant in tomato. Animal test have proven that even tomatine ingesting in high concentration, it would not cause health hazard. Thus the toxins present in the natural tomato and hence Flavr Savr will yield no health hazard.

· Gene Product produced by Kanr gene does not cause health hazard upon consumption

Gene Kan^r (antibiotic resistance gene to the kanamycin) is new compound that inserted to the Flavr Savr. Its function to identify or isolate the cells that have the inserted antisense gene from other non-Kanr gene by being able to grow in a kanamycin environment.

Product that produce by Kan^r is Aminoglycoside3’-Phosphotransferase II (APH 3’II). This enzyme commonly found in edible plant and animal, which can inactivate antibiotic effect of kanamycin and neomycin. Test result show that this protein doesn’t have any similarity to the other protein that cause allergic, present in low concentration and quickly broken down by stomach acid and digestive enzymes.

FDA conclude that APH 3’II have no similar characteristic to the allergen foods and does not cause health consern upon consumption.

· Nutrition content of the Flavr Savr Tomato are within normal range compared with natural tomato.

There is no difference in lycopene or beta-carotene content and taste in Flavr Savr.

Assessment of The Flavr SAVR

One of the greatest public concern that related with the GM product introduction to the environment is its effect to the other organism, such as plant, animal and microorganism in the area where they grown. Environment assessment to the GM product such as crops must be done carefully before they go to the consumer market. Field tests and laboratory experiment were conducted by FDA and APHIS, in order to determine the impact of Flavr Savr to the environment biosafety and public consumption.

Commercially grown tomatoes, which known with the name Lycopersicon resculentum can do self-pollinate and do not cross-pollinate to others plants growing in their vicinity and do not maintain themselves in the environment without human aid. In the tomatoes, there is no insect pollination or wind pollination. Field test that cross tomato with wild species result in the production of unviable seeds that can not grown into new plant. There is no evidence that the FLAVR SAVR tomato can cross-pollinate with other plants, and if such an event did occur, it would not contribute to the weedy properties of those plants any more than traditionally bred tomatoes and as long as they retain essential characteristic of traditionally tomatoes, we can conclude that Flavr savrs are safe for human and other organism.

Flavr Savr does not produce new toxin and pathogenic protein. The kan-r selectable marker used in FLAVR SAVR also does not pose a threat to soil microorganisms since there is no natural mechanism in which the tomato genome can be horizontally transferred and incorporated into their genomes, and thus will not pose a plant pest risk.

According to the test that mentioned above, the FDA and APHIS have concluded that the FLAVR SAVR tomato poses no threat to the environment and other organisms and thus is safe to be commercially grown and sold on the market. Flavr Savr have approved by FDA in 1994 and be the first GM food that approved by FDA.

Labeling

Labeling for GM foods are needed to give consumers an option to choose GM foods or not. Labeling is required for any food that poses special health or environmental risks (e.g., changes in nutritional properties, presence of an allergen), and food labels must be truthful and not misleading (e.g., if a food is significantly different from its conventional counterpart so that the common or usual name no longer applies, then the name must be changed to describe the difference). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mention that labeling concern with food products and does not require a label for process, meaning for how the product was developed or grown. GM foods labels must provide information about nutrition, composition and safety.

GM foods, as with conventional foods, are subject to existing labeling regulations under the FFDCA (the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act). The FDA has not found it necessary to require special labeling for Flavr Savr tomatoes, since it maintains the essential characteristics of traditionally developed tomatoes. However, the company has notified the agency that it plans to provide point-of-sale information for consumers about the development of the new product through genetic engineering.

References

Anonim. 2000. Safety assessment of genetically modified foods - a brief introduction. The Hongkong University of Science and Technology vol. 9 no. 4

http://www.ab.ust.hk

Diakses tanggal 18 April 2008

Anonim. 2002. Flavr Savr Tomotoes

http://dragon.zoo.utoronto.ca

Diakses tanggal 18 April 2008

Anonim, 2008. The Canadian Regulatory System.

http://www.agbios.com

Diakses tanggal 18 April 2008

Carter, C.A. 2002. International Approaches to the Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods. Agricultural and Research Economics Vol.6 No.1

http://www.tomatoesweb.com