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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 10 | FEB 07 | |
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ARTICLE
FOOD FUTURES:
Wheat gets a Health Kick By Rebecca Thyer
An international research collaboration aims to deliver a high-amylose wheat variety with specific consumer health benefits.In the not too distant future, a bowl of cereal, muesli bar, sandwich or steaming bowl of pasta will not only satiate the appetite but have highly targeted nutritional roles. In a $12.5 million international collaboration, Australian researchers are working to breed and commercialise a new variety of wheat tailored to provide value-added traits for graingrowers. The new wheat will offer specific health benefits to consumers, such as tackling some of the factors that contribute to bowel cancer and other dietary-related conditions. The research is to be undertaken by a joint venture between CSIRO (through the Food Futures Flagship), the French farmer-owned company Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).
Within five years, the partners will decide on releasing a commercial wheat variety, modified to have a high amylose content. Amylose, one component of starch, has been targeted because of its established health benefits. It is more resistant to digestion so it releases glucose more slowly, leading to a low glycaemic response. Nearly all starch is consumed as cooked foods and is broken down into glucose in the small intestine, where it is absorbed into the body. However, resistant starch – the fraction that escapes digestion in the small intestine and passes into the colon, where it is broken down by resident bacteria – has important health attributes. Research suggests that it can promote bowel health, reduce colorectal cancer risk and improve the control of blood glucose. Controlling blood glucose is important in managing type 2 diabetes and may also help lower the risk of obesity. Increasing wheat’s amylose content is crucial to these health benefits, so the High-Amylose Wheat (HAW) joint venture could make an important contribution to community health. HAW will be economically beneficial for Australia’s graingrowers, providing a new, high-value market segment. GRDC chairman Terry Enright, a West Australian wheat grower, says the development of HAW varieties will be commercially significant for farmers. “Such value-added varieties will provide the Australian grains industry with the opportunity to market differentiated high-value niche grains in both domestic and foreign markets,” he says. Mr Enright says food processors could also benefit by avoiding the need to add extra fibre to products – a step increasingly taken to boost processed foods’ nutritional value. HAW varieties could bypass this requirement. Food Futures Flagship director Dr Bruce Lee says that these grains, in addition to adding value to Australian graingrowers and the food processing industry, will also bring potential benefits for diet-related, non-infectious conditions, such as colorectal cancer, heart disease and diabetes. These are some of the most serious health problems in the developed world, causing premature death and disability and posing a serious economic and social burden.
Research suggests that amylose, a component of starch, can promote bowel health, reduce colorectal cancer and control blood glucose“High levels of resistant starch give grain the potential to be useful in tackling these problems,” Dr Lee says. The joint venture will build on core technology developed by CSIRO Plant Industry and Biogemma (Limagrain’s biotech subsidiary), which saw the creation of an experimental wheat variety with an amylose content of 70 per cent. This innovation was made possible through gene technology. Using CSIRO-developed RNAi gene silencing techniques, researchers were able to substantially alter starch composition, increasing wheat’s amylose content. Food Futures Advanced Genetics theme leader Dr Matthew Morell says this technology has proved exceptionally useful in defining the genetic changes required to generate HAW, and will help the team develop both conventionally bred and GM wheat varieties. Dr Morell says the team’s immediate task is to breed a HAW using conventional methods. “By using molecular marker technology we are able to identify the genetic diversity necessary to develop HAWs using conventional breeding,” he says. “This route will take more time than breeding a GM variety, as there are breeding complexities involved, but it is available if we can’t go down the GM route.” Although GM food crops have been grown worldwide for about 10 years and GM cotton is grown in Australia, most Australian states have moratoriums on growing GM food crops. However, Dr Morell says the research team can proceed quickly with a GM variety if regulatory conditions change. Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients managing director Alain Perrin says his company is pleased the joint venture is working with new and conventional technologies.
“We are comfortable that the GM wheat is being developed because it is the first GM product that has a consumer health benefit,” Mr Perrin says. “This could contribute to the acceptance of GM food crops in Europe. The wheat’s growing conditions are being tested to ensure that harvested wheat keeps its high amylose content, and researchers are also assessing how the wheat performs when processed into different types of cereal-based foods. For further information contact: |
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