Das Projekt "Entwicklung von Verfahren zur Feststellung von Nahrungsmitteln, die mittels Gentechnik hergestellt wurden" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Fakultät I Allgemeine und Angewandte Naturwissenschaften, Institut für Lebensmitteltechnologie, Fachgebiet Allgemeine Lebensmitteltechnologie und -mikrobiologie durchgeführt. In the near future food produced by means of genetic engineering will be commercially available in large scales. In most cases the genetic modification will not be detectable macroscopically, but only by molecular biological techniques. The scope of this proposal is to develop and evaluate methods for the identification of foods produced by genetic engineering. The conclusive identification of genetic modifications depends normally on the presence of the modified DNA and on the knowledge about the modified sequences. That is certainly a limitation for the development of detection methods since for many food items these prerequistes are not fulfilled. Nevertheless, there are many other foods still containing DNA for which the modified sequences are known. The project concentrates on such products, although other approaches will also be covered. Methods for conclusive identification are based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic methods and hybridization techniques using specific probes. In addition to the genetic modification itself the detection systems have to consider the effects of the food matrix and the nature of the organism. In parallel to the straightforward development of methods based on PCR and hybridization procedures other methods which have the potential to increase efficiency in routinely performed analysis will be investigated (detection of marker genes, development of multiplex primer systems, microtiter plate based sandwich-type DNA probe assay (PCR-ELISA), DNA biosensors). The proposal covers also methods which support or might substitute PCR/hybridization procedures in certain cases, like direct hybridization, isothermal Nucleic Acid Sequence based Amplification (NASBA) and self-sustained sequence replication (3SR) techniques for actively transcribed modified sequences, AFLP fingerprinting and protein diagnostic methods. The proposal combines 12 laboratories from 8 European countries.