
Read the
magazine
story to find out more. Modified
Soybeans May Be Less AllergenicBy Jan Suszkiw September 3, 2002Using biotechnology, researchers
shut off the gene for a crucial protein that makes soybean seeds so allergenic
to some consumers. The advance--by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service, University
of Arkansas (UA), and private
industry--could shorten the list of products that soy-sensitive consumers often
must avoid eating. Worldwide, six to eight percent of children and one to two
percent of adults suffer food allergies. Soybeans, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree
nuts, fish, wheat and shellfish cause 90-plus percent of food allergic
reactions, primarily in children. More than half of all soy allergies are caused by a protein called P34. Now,
however, Eliot Herman, Rick Helm and collaborators have developed strains of
soybean plants whose seed cannot make this allergenic protein. They resorted to
a biotech method called "gene silencing," rather than conventional
plant breeding, because P34 is so widespread among both wild and cultivated
soybeans. Herman, an ARS plant physiologist at the
Donald Danforth Plant Science
Center in St. Louis, Mo., believes this marks the first time a dominant
human allergen has been eliminated from a major food crop by this method. Field
trials begun in 2001 indicate the modified beans' agronomic properties are no
different than those of unaltered plants whose seed contains P34, Herman
reports. Testing continues, though, to further verify their diminished
allergenicity (or "hypoallergenicity") and commercial potential. For example, this summer the researchers began feeding the hypoallergenic
beans to newborn piglets to compare the animals' reactions to those fed
unaltered beans. The study, which includes skin-prick allergenicity tests, is
being led by Helm, an immunologist at the UA-Arkansas Children's Hospital Research
Institute in Little Rock. Eventually, this study and others could serve as a springboard to clinical
trials with humans and set the stage for commercial cultivars that could
benefit many food products, including flour, cereals and baby formulas. A more detailed article on the research appears in this
month's
issue of Agricultural Research magazine. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's main scientific research agency. U.S. Department of Agriculture |