Environmental Risk Assessment of Living Modified Microorganisms (LMM) on the Indigenous Microbial Community

Abstract

Recent advance of biotechnology enabled development of various living modified microorganisms (LMMs) uses in the field of environmental remediation, food industry, biopesticide, and so on. Consequently, such LMMs have the potential to be released into the natural environment, either intentionally or unintentionally, or exposed to the natural ecosystem during the applications. To investigate the unintended effects of LMMs on soil microorganism populations and communities, microcosm study was conducted using the recombinant microorganism, Corynebacterium glutamicum SEM002 carrying the D-psicose-3-epimerase from Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a model LMM. In addition, potential gene transfer from the LMMs into the soil environment in the microcosm was examined. As a result, small differences in LMMs were observed in populations of soil microorganism such as total bacteria, kanamycin-resistant bacteria, total fungi and total actinomycete. Also, more than 93% of the kanamycin resistance gene from the LMMs was degraded in the microcosm during the 90 days. On the basis of the experimental results, the LMMs showed no distinct impact on soil microorganism populations and communities.