GMO fate from the fodder to the food: the state of the art

The use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production is something about society demands total transparency. The purpose of this review is to organize the significant amount of research regarding the fate of recombinant molecules within GM crops after consumption by livestock and summarize the main results about vertical GM DNA transmission. The main technique of investigation was Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Many results of recent publications agree that most of the DNA in a diet is degraded in the gastrointestinal tract by endogenous restriction nucleases, nevertheless some DNA fragments have been found in animal tissues and in products of animal origin as milk and meat. Short DNA sequences from plant tissues has been shown in the GastroIntestinal Tract (GIT) of ruminants and pigs. Plant DNA was also detectable in blood, muscular tissues and other organs of cattle and pigs but not in the offspring. Many discording results has been reported about the presence of transgenic DNA. Therefore additional research is needed in the field of both genetic traceability studies and DNA quantification methods development.