CSIRO develops new wheat variety
The experimental wheat variety has potential to provide benefits in the areas of bowel health, diabetes and obesity.
01/03/06 CSIRO has developed a new experimental wheat variety with the potential to provide benefits in the areas of bowel health, diabetes and obesity.
In a paper published in the international science journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers working within the Food Futures Flagship describe how they used CSIRO-developed RNAi gene silencing techniques to suppress the expression of two starch-branching enzymes in an experimental wheat.
An animal trial confirmed that there were positive changes in indicators of bowel health in rats fed a diet of the high-amylose wheat, when compared to standard wheat. Importantly, there was no change in the growth rate of the rats.
Food Futures Flagship Director, Dr Bruce Lee, says the Flagship, working with CSIRO Plant Industry, Human Nutrition and Food Science Australia – and its French partner, Biogemma – is developing novel wheat varieties to meet the community's emerging health needs.
Biogemma’s General Manager, Michel Debrand, says the outcome shows how the development of a health benefit, which adds value to seed grain, can result from long-term partnerships between CSIRO and companies like Biogemma.
The paper: ‘High-amylose wheat generated by RNA interference improves indices of large-bowel health in rats’ appears in the 27 February, 2006, edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and can be viewed at: http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml
