In an earlier study, research plant geneticist Ann
E. Blechl looks at root growth of genetically engineered wheat plants.
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Making Wheat Flour More Nutritious
By Marcia Wood
November 24, 2006 Your favorite bread, breakfast
cereal or pasta might tomorrow be made with wheat flour that's more nutritious
than ever. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university scientists have
identified a gene that can increase the protein, iron and zinc content of wheat
kernels. The gene, known as Gpc-B1, does that in bread wheats and pasta
wheats alike.
Today, nearly all Americans eat enough protein for good health, but more
than 36 million of us don't get enough zinc, and more than 15 million are short
on iron. The wheat research, by enriching the nutrients in one of the world's
leading crops, holds the potential to improve Americans' health and that of
millions of the world's malnourished.
Plant geneticist
Ann E.
Blechl helped prove the Gpc-B1 gene's prowess in enhancing wheat
flour's nutritional bounty. She used a technique called "RNA
interference" to lower what are known as the genes expression levels
in wheat plants. Blechl did the work in her laboratory at the ARS
Western
Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif.
New research shows that a working version of a
gene increases protein, iron and zinc in wheat kernels by about 15 percent.
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Collaborators working under the direction of wheat breeder and professor
Jorge Dubcovsky of the University
of California-Davis found that kernels harvested from the plants with
lowered Gpc-B1 levels had at least 30 percent less protein, zinc and
iron. According to Blechl, the work proved that Gpc-B1 controlled all of
these nutrients. The finding predicts that incorporating additional copies of
the functioning gene into bread and pasta wheats will be valuable.
Blechl is an international authority on the use of RNA interference and
other biotech approaches to explore the largely untapped capabilities of genes
of grain-bearing crops.
Dubcovsky, Blechl and colleagues in Haifa, Israel, report their findings in
the current issue of the journal Science. A summary can be viewed on the
World Wide Web by going to www.Sciencemag.org, then clicking on
"current issue."
The research was sponsored by two U.S. Department of Agriculture
agenciesARS and the Cooperative
State Research, Education and Extension Serviceand the
United States-Israel Binational
Agricultural Research and Development Fund.
ARS is USDA's chief in-house scientific
research agency.