Something Interesting To Watch For!!

[Dee]

April 24, 2008

Washington State University researcher receives NIH grant to develop wheat free of harmful gluten proteins

PULLMAN, WA - Washington State University researcher Diter von Wettstein has been awarded a four-year, $837,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further his work on developing wheat varieties safe to eat for people who have Celiac disease.



Celiac disease is a genetic digestive disease and autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. Symptoms are broad, ranging from cramps and diarrhea to malnutrition. The disease is triggered by consumption of gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

Currently, the only treatment for people who have Celiac disease is to adopt a gluten-free diet, eliminating all wheat, rye and barley-based foods. Making such a diet more difficult, gluten is also used as a filler or binder in many additional food and non-food items, such as deli-meats, licorice, medicines, vitamins and even the adhesive on stamps and envelopes.

“Medical experts at the National Institutes of Health have declared urgency in dealing with the most food-sensitive intestinal condition in humans, and require faster and more decisive methods such as transgenic breeding,” said Von Wettstein.

Von Wettstein and his team have discovered a fully viable, lysine-rich mutant which lacks gliadin-type proteins in barley, showing the way to make Celiac-safe wheat. Lysine is an amino acid essential for an optimal diet, but typically deficient in wheat.

His team has partnered with Arcadia Biosciences, a biotech company based in Seattle to identify specific mutations in genes affecting the gliadin-type prolamins in gluten protein. Specifically, it is the gliadins that cannot be digested and eventually cross the intestinal wall, causing the damaging T-cell response to the intestinal lining. Fortunately, it has been shown that eliminating the gliadins does not compromise wheat’s baking qualities.

“Creating new cultivars of wheat, arguably the most important crop grown, having increased lysine and lacking gliadins will be of tremendous benefit not only for sufferers of Celiac disease, but for all consumers of wheat and wheat products,” said Von Wettstein.

Von Wettstein holds the R.A. Nilan Distinguished Professorship in WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Science and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

[tex]

Thanks Dee,

That's very interesting. If they can pull it off, and get a seed variety that not only excludes the gliadin fraction, but also includes a higher lysine content, the variety may eventually go mainstream, and that would be a huge benefit for everyone who eats products made from wheat. It still may not work for some gluten-sensitive individuals, though, because unfortunately, while the gliadin fraction contains by far the greatest percentage of "toxins", we also react, to some extent, to the glutenin fraction in wheat, and it is unlikely that the researchers will be able to totally eliminate that risk, (but maybe they will pull off a miracle, who knows?).

Since the current " ideal balance" of 1:1 between gliadin and glutenin, in bread wheats, seems to be the key to their success, it seems implausible that one could just eliminate the gliadin fraction, and still have a product that could be used to make good bread. However, the idea definitely has merit, because it turns out that the glutenin component has by far the most important influence on the viscoelasticity of gluten, as far as bread-making qualities are concerned, (the gliadin adds viscosity, but the elastic qualities of the glutenin are what holds the dough together):

Wheat flour contains roughly the same amounts of glutenins and gliadins, and the unbalance of the glutenin/gliadin ratio may change its viscoelastic properties. The glutenin fraction is, however, the major protein factor responsible for variations in dough strength among wheat varieties. Fu and Sapirstein (1996) recently confirmed this; they observed that most of the variation in dough strength parameters was explained by the amounts of soluble and insoluble glutenin.

For an excellent primer on wheat and it's role in the baking industry, see this article, (which is the source of that quote):

http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/Y4011E/y4011e0w.htm#bm32

Even if the final product is not perfect, it will definitely be a step in the right direction. And, the National Institutes of Health has apparently tendered enough funding to see the project through, since it typically costs around half a million dollars to develop a new wheat variety. The downside is that it will probably be about ten years before we will see any products based on this research, assuming that they are successful. Still, that's a lot better than never.

Tex

[MaggieRedwings]

Now that would be something to really look forward to. You have to admit though that $204,000 per year on the grant was not really going overboard for research. The government spends more than that on some really ridiculous grants. However, I am thankful that someone is doing something and maybe it will pay off for some of us.

Thanks for the research.

Love, Maggie