SCIENTISTS have engineered a new strain of wheat that produces forms of gluten that decrease triggering of a dangerous immune reaction in as many as one in 100 people.
All gluten is not created equal. Most immune reaction to gluten is caused by a component in gluten called gliadins. Scientists at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture in Cordoba, Spain use gene editing to remove most of the gliadins from wheat. They reported their works recently in the journal Plant Biotechnology.
Francisco Barro’s team used a genetic modification technique [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] to remove 90 per cent of the gliadins in wheat. They did this by adding genes that trigger a process called RNA interference, which stops specific proteins being made.
But because the gliadin genes themselves remain intact, in theory, there is a risk that the wheat could start making the crucial proteins again.
The scientists then used CRISPR, to knock out 35 of the 45 genes for the main gliadin protein. Immuno-reactivity to gluten, they reported, was reduced by 85 per cent with the new wheat.
Such a genetically modified wheat strain, they wrote, might one day be used to create low-gluten foods.
More genes will still need to be knocked out before the wheat is ready for testing. But the modified wheat has already passed the biggest test: The low-gluten wheat that able to make a decent loaf of bread.
People who have an autoimmune condition called coeliac disease respond incorrectly to gluten, which damages the gut lining and can lead to diarrhoea, vomiting, malnutrition, brain damage and even gut cancers.
“Some people will be very happy with this, not least because sticking to a gluten-free diet is difficult,” says Sarah Sleet, head of patients’ group Coeliac UK to New Scientist, a weekly English-language international science magazine.
Small trials of the GM wheat involving ten and 20 people with coeliac disease are already being carried out in Mexico and Spain. “All I can say is that the results are very encouraging,” says Chojecki.
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