Project Title: Engineered Lactobacillus for Enhanced Omega-3 Fatty Acids Content in Yogurt

Concentration or Focus: Principles and Practices

Author: Md Rasel Uddin

Yogurt costs cheaper than Hilsa fish, the principal source of dietary omega-3 fatty acids (OFA) in Bangladeshi cuisine. Lactobacillus used in yogurt as starter culture already has the potential to produce fatty acids at some extent, introduction of algal and bacterial OFA producing genes into lactobacillus strain might improve the OFA content in yogurt.

Here I intend to scrutinize the principles and practices involved in the implementation of the project ‘Engineered Lactobacillus for Enhanced Omega-3 fatty acids Content in Yogurt’.

Governance/policy goals:

To ensure this project aligns closely with the biosafety guideline, the policy goals shall include:

1. Ensure biosafety

Potential risk assessment on human gut microbiota to elucidate how engineered lactobacillus strain will interact with the native microbiome of human gut (intestine) and on overall human health to detect potential allergenicity, toxicity or unintended metabolic effects.

1. Protect the environment

Find containment strategies to prevent unintended release of engineered Lactobacillus into the environment.

Governance actions:

To confirm this project is safe for everyone and the environment, these following actions need to be taken:

1. Risk mitigation for human health safety:

• Purpose: Naturally occurring Lactobacillus strains in yogurt are generally recognized as safe, but genetically engineered probiotics require safety evaluation. We intend to establish specific regulatory frameworks to implement comprehensive safety testing for allergenicity and toxicity in yogurts containing engineered lactobacillus strain.
• Design: In vitro and animal models will assess how the engineered strain interacts with existing gut bacteria. Human clinical trials will measure changes in gut microbial composition. Health monitoring programs will track long-term effects on human gut health. Bioinformatics screening for allergenic sequences in introduced genes and metabolomic profiling to check for unintended metabolic byproducts will be crucial. Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) should have a probiotic-specific GMO food safety framework with proper scientific documentation and risk assessments. Food safety authorities in Bangladesh shall ****approve and oversee risk assessment, also work closely with academic researchers and biosafety experts.
• Assumptions: We assume bioinformatics screening can detect all possible allergens in engineered genes, gut microbiome studies will accurately predict long-term health effects and post-market surveillance will effectively track any adverse effects.
• Risks of Failure & “Success”: Failure in safety assessments could lead to health hazards. Risk of success here might be over-reliance on GE probiotics which could alter gut microbiome balance in unpredictable ways.

1. Prevention of long-term effects on gut microbiota

• Purpose: Traditional yogurts and probiotics (with Lactobacillus strains) are widely consumed, with limited regulation on their long-term effects. Engineered probiotics are not systematically monitored for long-term microbiome impact. Implementation of gut microbiome studies to monitor the engineered Lactobacillus strain’s effect over time is very important along with developing biosafety strategies to prevent engineered strains from persistently colonizing the gut.