These factors have to be analysed in such a way that a realistic and plausible scenarios of potential interactions between the LMO and the likely potential receiving environment are made and considered in the risk assessment.

As with any other organism, an LMO released into the environment is expected to have many interactions with other organisms. For the purposes of environmental risk assessment, it is critical to develop verifiable risk scenarios and identify the appropriate species that may be impacted by the presence of the LMO in the environment. For example, gene flow and possibly introgression are more likely to occur when sexually compatible species are present in the likely potential receiving environment. The selection of suitable representative species in the likely potential receiving environment is also informative (see section 3.1).