Establishment and Application of a Monitoring Strategy for Living Modified Cotton in Natural Environments in South Korea

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is grown worldwide for its natural hollow fibers and is used as cattle feed. Living modified (LM) cotton is not cultivated in South Korea and must be imported for food, feed, and processing. From 2009 to 2013, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) and the National Institute of Ecology (NIE) conducted a natural environment monitoring and post-management initiative for living modified organisms (LMOs) in some areas to reduce the likelihood of harmful effects caused by unintentionally discharged LMOs during transportation and use. In this study, we adopted a new strategy to identify unintentionally released LM cotton plants nationwide from 2014 to 2018. A total of 451 suspicious cotton samples were collected from 3921 survey sites. Among them, we identified 255 LM cotton plants, of which approximately 72.2% had transgenic herbicide and insecticide traits. The majority of the samples were collected from the roadside along transportation routes and from stockbreeding farms. This study establishes an LMO safety management system to efficiently maintain conservation efforts in South Korea. Our findings suggest that these efforts may play a key role in safely transporting, using, and managing approved LMOs, as well as in regulating unintentionally released LMOs, in order to preserve the natural ecosystem of South Korea

Effectiveness of a Priority Management Scheme of Living Modified Organism Re-Collection Areas in Natural Environments of South Korea

Since 2009, the Ministry of Environment and the National Institute of Ecology in South Korea have been conducting a living modified organism (LMO) monitoring and post-management project in natural environments to prevent the unintentional release and spread of LMOs to natural ecosystems. The project surveyed six administrative districts of South Korea from 2009 to 2013 and collected 1960 LMO suspicious samples from 1850 monitoring sites. As a result, 113 LMOs were identified at 65 sites and removed for post-management. An analysis of the five-year LMO monitoring results showed that LMOs were re-collected in 38.4% of the 65 areas where they were initially collected. This result led to the establishment of a new LMO management system in 2014, with priority given to areas where LMOs had been re-collected twice or more within the last five years. Intensive surveys and post-management were conducted four times a year in these priority management areas. The results confirmed that the novel management system for LMO priority areas effectively prevented the continuous collection of LMOs in the same areas. In conclusion, establishing a safety management system for priority management areas, intensive surveys, and post-management efforts are crucial for protecting natural ecosystems from the putative risks of unintentionally released LMOs

Supersulphides provide airway protection in viral and chronic lung diseases

Abstract Supersulphides are inorganic and organic sulphides with sulphur catenation with diverse physiological functions. Their synthesis is mainly mediated by mitochondrial cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase (CARS2) that functions as a principal cysteine persulphide synthase (CPERS). Here, we identify protective functions of supersulphides in viral airway infections (influenza and COVID-19), in aged lungs and in chronic lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We develop a method for breath supersulphur-omics and demonstrate that levels of exhaled supersulphides increase in people with COVID-19 infection and in a hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Lung damage and subsequent lethality that result from oxidative stress and inflammation in mouse models of COPD, IPF, and ageing were mitigated by endogenous supersulphides production by CARS2/CPERS or exogenous administration of the supersulphide donor glutathione trisulphide. We revealed a protective role of supersulphides in airways with various viral or chronic insults and demonstrated the potential of targeting supersulphides in lung disease