BIOTECHNOLOGY

Making Wheat Flour More Nutritious

Your favorite bread, breakfast cereal or pasta might tomorrow be made with wheat flour that's more nutritious than ever. Agricultural Research Service (ARS; Beltsville, MD; www.ars.usda.gov) and university scientists have identified a gene that can increase the protein, iron and zinc content of wheat kernels, potentially improving Americans' health and that of millions of the world's malnourished. The gene, known as Gp -B1, does that in bread wheats and pasta wheats alike.

Plant geneticist Ann Blechl helped prove the Gpc-B1 gene's prowess in enhancing wheat flour's nutritional bounty. She used a technique called "RNA interference" to lower what are known as the gene's expression levels in wheat plants. Blechl did the work in her laboratory at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, CA.

Collaborators working under the direction of wheat breeder und professor Jorge Dubcovsky of the University of California-Davis (www.uedavis.edu) found that kernels harvested from the plants with lowered Gpc-B1 levels had at least 30% less protein, zinc and iron.

According to Blechl, the work proved that Gpc-B1 controlled all of these nutrients. The finding predicts that incorporating additional copies of the functioning gene into bread and pasta wheats will be valuable.

In an earlier study, research plant geneticist Ann E. Blechl looks at root growth of genetically engineered wheat plants.

$100-MILLION PLANT IS FIRST TO PRODUCE PROPANEDIOL FROM CORN SUGAR

DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, LLC, an equally owned joint venture of DuPont and Tate & Lyle, has made its first commercial shipments of Bio-PDO from its $100-million facility in Loudon, TN. The plant produces 1,3-propanediol (Bio-PDO) from renewable resources - in this case corn sugar - making it the first facility in the world to manufacture this new bio-based product. The first shipments of Bio-PDO were sent to DuPont for the manufacture of its Sorona polymer and to a customer evaluating a new industrial product formulated with Bio-PDO.

The joint venture uses a proprietary fermentation process that uses corn instead of petroleum-based feedstocks. The production of Bio-PDO consumes 40% less energy and reduces green-house gas emissions by 20% compared with petroleum-based propanediol. Production of 100 million lb of Bio-PDO will save the energy equivalent of10 million gallons of gasoline per year, or enough to fuel 22,000 cars annually.

"The first shipments of Bio-PDO from Loudon mark the beginning of the commercial availability of DuPont's bio-based pipeline, which is designed to deliver high-performance, renewably sourced materials," says DuPont's executive vice president and chief innovation officer Thomas Connelly. "The technology that was developed to make the various grades of Bio-PDO a reality holds great promise. It is a clear demonstration that this new technology can offer new opportunities for products in every major market segment in our economy."

Adding to Connelly's comments, Lynn Grider, president of Tate & Lyle's U.S. Food & Industrial Ingredients Div., notes that "achieving the first commercial shipment is a significant milestone for the joint venture and marks the important move from theoretical to practicat."

Toward the end of 2007, the first railcar (above) of Bio-PDO was loaded with 180,050 lb of material and shipped from the Loudon, TN, facility (below).