CSIRO developing wheat with cholesterol lowering qualities
Australian scientists are one step closer to developing a wheat variety that could be used to make cholesterol lowering bread.
The CSIRO is hoping to breed wheat with similar health benefits to oats and barley.
PHOTO: The CSIRO is currently growing trial wheat crops that have been modified to include the gene that gives oats their cholesterol lowering qualities.
However, many people prefer bread made with wheat, which unfortunately has less betaglucan that is also insoluble and lacking cholesterol health benefits.
CSIRO principal research scientist Dr Steve Jobling is part of the team which recently discovered the key difference between betaglucan in oats and wheat.
"There are very small differences in the enzyme that makes betaglucan in wheat and oats. In fact, there is a single amino acid difference in the protein and we have found that single amino acid difference can change the structure and make it more soluble," he said.
The team is currently growing trial wheat crops that have been modified to include the gene that gives oats their cholesterol-lowering qualities.
"These plants are genetically modified because they have a gene from oat in wheat and we're growing them in a controlled field trial at the moment to get enough grain to test their bread making qualities, as well as to determine if they actually do have cholesterol lowering properties," he said.
Dr Jobling was confident the team would be able to make the wheat into tasty bread with the health benefits of oats.
He said the next step was breeding the variety naturally, a process a little like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"This will be much more difficult, but we think with the new knowledge that we have got about betaglucan structure it is possible, although that is going to be several more years yet," he said.
"With a genetic modification approach it is a very precise technology and you can just take the gene that you know controls the trait and put that into the wheat crop and you know it will have the effect.
"With the conventional breeding, you have to search for changes in the gene of interest and it'll take a lot lot longer."
Dr Jobling said it would take at least five years to get the wheat to the market.
Source: ABC News, Lucinda Jose, July 6th 2015
