Biosafety and the Environmental Uses of Micro-Organisms conference proceedings ; [this publication constitutes the proceedings of the OECD Conference on the "Environmental Uses of Micro-Organisms: an Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Implications for B

"This publication constitutes the proceedings of the OECD conference on the "Environmental Uses of Micro-Organisms: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Implications for Biotechnology Risk/Safety Assessment". This event, organised under the auspices of OECD's Working Group on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology (WG-HROB), was held on 26-27 March 2012. ... It was developed in collaboration with the OECD Co-operative Research Programme under the Trade and Agriculture Directorate. ... There have been many scientific developments in recent years related to the use of micro-organisms in the environment and the conference was an opportunity to provide an overview of the current situation, focusing on concrete or expected developments involving the use of transgenic micro-organisms in the environment."-- Read more... Introduction: micro-organisms, public health and the environment -- Part I. The use of micro-organisms in agriculture. Biofertilizers: present and future use of transgenic micro-organisms -- Phytosanitation and the development of transgenic biocontrol agents -- Lessons on the impact of genetically engineered micro-organisms on natural ecosystems like soil -- Part II. The use of microalgae for production purposes. The need and risks of using transgenic microalgae for the production of food, feed, chemicals and fuels -- The benefits and advantages of commercial algal biomass harvesting -- Issues in the risk assessment of the use of microalgae for production purposes -- Part III. The use of micro-organisms for bioremediation. Designing bacteria for the environment: from trial and error to earnest engineering -- The intentional release of micro-organisms into the environment: challenges to commercial use -- Part IV. The use of micro-organisms in cleaning products. Microbial-based cleaning products in use and the potential role of transgenic micro-organisms -- Microbes in cleaning products: regulatory experience and challenges for risk assessment -- Part V. Environmental application of microbial symbionts of insects. Use and release of mosquitoes for the control of dengue transmission: a world-first trial in Australia -- Fighting malaria with engineered mosquito symbiotic bacteria -- Part VI. Environmental risk assessment of the deliberate release of engineered micro-organisms. Next generation sequencing-based metagenomics for monitoring soil microbiota -- Reflection on environmental risk assessment of micro-organisms -- Risk assessment considerations of genetically modified micro-organisms for releases -- Overarching issues in the environmental risk assessment of deliberate release of transgenic micro-organisms. "This publication constitutes the proceedings of the OECD conference on the "Environmental Uses of Micro-Organisms: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Implications for Biotechnology Risk/Safety Assessment". This event, organised under the auspices of OECD's Working Group on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology (WG-HROB), was held on 26-27 March 2012. ... It was developed in collaboration with the OECD Co-operative Research Programme under the Trade and Agriculture Directorate. ... There have been many scientific developments in recent years related to the use of micro-organisms in the environment and the conference was an opportunity to provide an overview of the current situation, focusing on concrete or expected developments involving the use of transgenic micro-organisms in the environment."-- Foreword, page 3 Micro-organisms play a fundamental role in the environment. Yet their role is the result of complex biogeochemical processes by consortia of micro-organisms and the function of individual species is not clear in many cases. This publication provides an overview of the current situation and relevant developments in environmental microbiology, as well as its potential application, which covers: use of micro-organisms for agriculture, production purposes, bioremediation, and cleaning purpose; environmental applications of microbial symbionts of insects; and environmental risk/safety assessment of