LAND: A new model approach to assess genetically modified plants: their ecotoxicity and potential interactions with environmental pollutants

Genetically modified (GM) plants from modern biotechnology have already a history as commercialised feed and food products. The agricultural industry using GM techniques is rapidly increasing and represents large scale options and challenges for both soci eties and ecosystems. Environmental impacts of GM crops continue to be a highly controversial issue. Some claims little to no effect and others express concern over growing documentation that non-target biodiversity is negatively affected by GM plants and that such impacts may go unnoticed for a long time as many adverse effects detected in the lab may realize only slowly in the environment. Additionally, environmental factors may interact in complex ways with GM plants, but our ecological knowledge on th e role of environmental context is premature. No studies to date have explored interaction effects of GM crops with environmental pollutants, e.g. endocrine disrupters, that can occur widespread but at low concentrations in the environment. In the case of herbicide resistant plants, chemicals like glyphosate are applied in large quantities together with the GM plants. An increased understanding of GMOs interacting with various environmental factors is necessary for the future management and conservation o f biological diversity and its functions. In this project, we plan to use an already established ecotoxicological model for testing GM crop plants with or without the additional stress of environmental pollutants. We aim at assessing two important GM plan ts (Bt-maize and herbicide resistant soy) together with selected environmental pollutants (two endocrine disrupting chemicals and glyphosate) in Daphnia magna cell cultures, in D. magna feeding studies and in a tri-trophic food chain with cyanobacteria or green alga ? D. magna ? zebrafish Danio rerio.