새로운 생명공학작물 안전성 평가를 위한 작물 성분 DB 구축

Development of the conventional crop composition database for new genetically engineered crop safety assessment

he Biosafety Division of the National Academy of Agricultural Science has developed a ‘Crop Composition DB’ that provides analytical data on commercialized crops. It can be used as a reference in the ‘Comparative Evaluation by Compositional Analysis’ for the safety assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. This database provides the composition of crops cultivated in Korea, and thus upgrades the data to check the extent of changes in the compositional content depending on the cultivated area, varieties and year. The database is a compilation of data on the antioxidant, nutrient and secondary metabolite compositions of rice and capsicum grown in two or more cultivation areas for a period of more than two years. Data analysis was conducted under the guidelines of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists or methods previously reported on papers. The data was provided as average, minimum and maximum values to assess whether the statistical differences between the GM crops and comparative non-GM crops fall within the biological differences or tolerances of the existing commercial crops. The Crop Composition DB is an open-access source and is easy to access based on the query selected by the user. Moreover, functional ingredients of colored crops, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and cauliflowers, were provided so that food information can be used and utilized by general consumers. This paper introduces the feature and usage of ‘Crop Composition DB’, which is a valuable tool for characterizing the composition of conventional crops.