The African continent should consider a harmonized consultative and collaborative effort towards coordinated policy and regulatory guidelines across the fields of biotechnology.

The advances in the field of biotechnology (and bioengineering) over the past decades has allowed the precise development of new products across the agricultural, environmental, and pharmaceutical sectors. This has led to the need to evaluate the relevance and applicability of existing policies and frameworks that regulate the current transgenic technologies. On the African continent, there are delays in the development and implementation of biosafety policies and regulations. Most African countries formulate their policies, regulations, and frameworks by following The Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) guidelines. Although the CBD documents are continually evolving, this happens at a slower pace. It is becoming increasingly important for countries to deal swiftly with the advances in biotechnology in a manner that balances the regulatory complexities, while safeguarding the net gains for human health, the environment, and the economy. For the African countries, some of these net gains are similar, while concerns and perceived risks associated with the adoption and use of the technology are also common. Furthermore, the challenges relating to capacity, knowledge, and skills to address some of the regulatory complexities. In this article we explore the advancement of some African countries in the development and implementation of various biosafety policies and detail the challenges and constraints faced by those countries that are lagging behind. We conclude by outlining identified opportunities for neighbouring and regional countries to assist one another and work in a more organised and coordinated approach towards developing, implementing, and strengthening their respective biosafety policies, regulations, and frameworks.

Comparison of two GM maize varieties with a near-isogenic non-GM variety using transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of four nontargeted analytical methodologies in the detection of unintended effects that could be derived during genetic manipulation of crops. Three profiling technologies were used to compare the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome of two transgenic maize lines with the respective control line. By comparing the profiles of the two transgenic lines grown in the same location over three growing seasons, we could determine the extent of environmental variation, while the comparison with the control maize line allowed the investigation of effects caused by a difference in genotype. The effect of growing conditions as an additional environmental effect was also evaluated by comparing the Bt-maize line with the control line from plants grown in three different locations in one growing season. The environment was shown to play an important effect in the protein, gene expression and metabolite levels of the maize samples tested where 5 proteins, 65 genes and 15 metabolites were found to be differentially expressed. A distinct separation between the three growing seasons was also found for all the samples grown in one location. Together, these environmental factors caused more variation in the different transcript/protein/metabolite profiles than the different genotypes.

Oligonucleotide microarray for the identification of potential mycotoxigenic fungi.

BACKGROUND: Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites which are produced by numerous fungi and pose a continuous challenge to the safety and quality of food commodities in South Africa. These toxins have toxicologically relevant effects on humans and animals that eat contaminated foods. In this study, a diagnostic DNA microarray was developed for the identification of the most common food-borne fungi, as well as the genes leading to toxin production. RESULTS: A total of 40 potentially mycotoxigenic fungi isolated from different food commodities, as well as the genes that are involved in the mycotoxin synthetic pathways, were analyzed. For fungal identification, oligonucleotide probes were designed by exploiting the sequence variations of the elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1 alpha) coding regions and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the rRNA gene cassette. For the detection of fungi able to produce mycotoxins, oligonucleotide probes directed towards genes leading to toxin production from different fungal strains were identified in data available in the public domain. The probes selected for fungal identification and the probes specific for toxin producing genes were spotted onto microarray slides. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic microarray developed can be used to identify single pure strains or cultures of potentially mycotoxigenic fungi as well as genes leading to toxin production in both laboratory samples and maize-derived foods offering an interesting potential for microbiological laboratories.

Gene expression profiling for food safety assessment: examples in potato and maize.

Since the mid 1990s, microarray analysis has become one of the few tools that can analyze the entire contents of a cell regarding a specific information type. Especially since the development of whole genome microarrays the technique can be considered truly holistic. Most DNA based microarrays are used for the analysis of the total of messenger RNAs (transcriptome) and provide a snap-shot of what's going on in a cell population at the time of sampling. Within the last few years also full genome plant microarrays have become available for several crop species. With these it has been shown that several growing conditions can be separated based on their transcriptome pattern, such as location, year of harvest and agricultural input system, but also different cultivars of the same crop species, including genetically modified ones. A database comprising expression levels of the transcriptome in many different circumstances with a history of safe use would be a good comparator for evaluation of new agricultural practices or cultivars, genetically modified or otherwise obtained. New techniques as next generation sequencing may overcome issues on throughput time and cost, standard operation procedures and array design for individual crops.

A microarray-based method for the parallel analysis of genotypes and expression profiles of wood-forming tissues in Eucalyptus grandis.

BACKGROUND: Fast-growing Eucalyptus grandis trees are one of the most efficient producers of wood in South Africa. The most serious problem affecting the quality and yield of solid wood products is the occurrence of end splitting in logs. Selection of E. grandis planting stock that exhibit preferred wood qualities is thus a priority of the South African forestry industry. We used microarray-based DNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis in combination with expression profiling to develop fingerprints and profile gene expression of wood-forming tissue of seven different E. grandis trees. RESULTS: A 1578-probe cDNA microarray was constructed by arraying 768 cDNA-AFLP clones and 810 cDNA library clones from seven individual E. grandis trees onto silanised slides. The results revealed that 32% of the spotted fragments showed distinct expression patterns (with a fold change of at least 1.4 or -1.4 and a p value of 0.01) could be grouped into clusters representing co-expressed genes. Evaluation of the binary distribution of cDNA-AFLP fragments on the array showed that the individual genotypes could be discriminated. CONCLUSION: A simple, yet general method was developed for genotyping and expression profiling of wood-forming tissue of E. grandis trees differing in their splitting characteristics and in their lignin contents. Evaluation of gene expression profiles and the binary distribution of cDNA-AFLP fragments on the chip suggest that the prototype chip developed could be useful for transcript profiling and for the identification of Eucalyptus trees with preferred wood quality traits in commercial breeding programmes.

Omics analyses of potato plant materials using an improved one-class classification tool to identify aberrant compositional profiles in risk assessment procedures.

The objective of this study was to quantitatively assess potato omics profiles of new varieties for meaningful differences from analogous profiles of commercial varieties through the SIMCA one-class classification model. Analytical profiles of nine commercial potato varieties, eleven experimental potato varieties, one GM potato variety that had acquired Phytophtora resistance based on a single insert with potato-derived DNA sequences, and its non-GM commercial counterpart were generated. The ten conventional varieties were used to construct the one-class model. Omics profiles from experimental non-GM and GM varieties were assessed using the one-class SIMCA models. No potential unintended effects were identified in the case of the GM variety. The model showed that varieties that were genetically more distant from the commercial varieties were recognized as aberrant, highlighting its potential in determining whether additional evaluation is required for the risk assessment of materials produced from any breeding technique, including genetic modification.

Use of omics analytical methods in the study of genetically modified maize varieties tested in 90 days feeding trials.

Genetically modified (GM) maize and their non-modified counterparts were compared using MON810 varieties, the only GMO event cultivated in Europe. The differences in grain samples were analysed by omics profiles, including transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Other cultivated maize varieties were analysed as a reference for the variability that will exist between cultivated varieties. The observed differences between modified and non-modified maize varieties do not exceed typical differences between non-modified varieties. The use of these advanced analytical approaches to analyse novel plant materials as compared to the results from animal feeding trials with whole foods is assessed. No indications were observed for changes in the GM varieties that warrant further investigations. Furthermore, it was shown that such indications will be obtained if maize samples of inferior quality are analysed similarly. Omics data provide detailed analytical information of the plant material, which facilitates a risk assessment procedure of new (GM) plant varieties.

Metabolite profiling of maize kernels--genetic modification versus environmental influence.

A metabolite profiling approach based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was applied to investigate the metabolite profiles of genetically modified (GM) Bt-maize (DKC78-15B, TXP 138F) and Roundup Ready-maize (DKC78-35R). For the comparative investigation of the impact of genetic modification versus environmental influence on the metabolite profiles, GM maize was grown together with the non-GM near-isogenic comparators under different environmental conditions, including several growing locations and seasons in Germany and South Africa. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences between GM and non-GM maize grown in Germany and South Africa. For the factor genotype, 4 and 3%, respectively, of the total number of peaks detected by GC-MS showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) in peak heights as compared to the respective isogenic lines. However, ANOVA for the factor environment (growing location, season) revealed higher numbers of significant differences (p < 0.01) between the GM and the non-GM maize grown in Germany (42%) and South Africa (10%), respectively. This indicates that the majority of differences observed are related to natural variability rather than to the genetic modifications. In addition, multivariate data assessment by means of principal component analysis revealed that environmental factors, that is, growing locations and seasons, were dominant parameters driving the variability of the maize metabolite profiles.

Metabolomics and food processing: from semolina to pasta.

The objective of this study was to investigate the metabolite variations during industrial pasta processing (from semolina to dried pasta) for five different commercial products. Up to 76 metabolites were detected. Significant differences were observed between wholemeal and refined pasta samples, with the wholemeal pasta richer in many classes of compounds such as phytosterols, policosanols, unsaturated fatty acids, amino acids, carotenoids, minerals, and so on. Significant differences were also observed between samples of refined pasta apparently similar for the actual parameters used for the assessment of pasta quality. The results indicated that a number of metabolites undergo a transformation during the pasta-making process depending on the processing conditions adopted. The approach used in this work shows the high potential of metabolite profiling for food investigations with regard to process-related transformation, safety, and nutrition.

Donovanose em pacientes portadores de AIDS: relato de dois casos / Donovanosis in patients with AIDS: report of 2 cases

Os autores relatam dois casos de pacientes portadores da Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida e Donovanose, sendo um do sexo masculino e outro do sexo feminino. A evoluçäo foi bastante atípica com aparecimento de novas lesöes, e expansäo das preexistentes, apesar da terapêutica empregada, a qual, habitualmente, demonstra excelentes resultados em pacientes imunocompetentes. Foi observada também a positividade bacteriológica em esfregaços colhidos das lesöes e corados pelo Giemsa