He presented his teams research at the 2020 ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting in November.
It wasnt until recently that experts began to attribute the phenomenon to widespread celiac disease and gluten insensitivity.
Peanuts, for example, have 16 proteins shown to cause allergic reactions.
Andy Sacks / Getty Images
We started our work focusing on the major allergen, Dodo says.
We do have the peanut plant that is significantly lower in overall allergenicity.
Early efforts to genetically modify allergenic crops used a technology called RNA Interference (RNAi).
That means you’re not introducing, you’re just changing what is naturally existing.
Plants that are edited using CRISPR may also be approved quicker than those using older RNAi technology.
[CRISPR] is a more powerful, more precise technology," Dodo says.
There are no genetically modified wheat products on the market yet.
Beneficial bacteria and other species in the gut feed off of prebiotics like the fiber in wheat.
Rustgi says that by stripping gluten from the wheat, the plant loses little to no nutritional value.
Gluten, however, is essential for creating the structure and chewiness characteristic of many baked goods.
Gluten is comprised of three kinds of allergen proteins.
It can bake into a reasonably quality breadbetter than something that is being produced from rice, he says.
Both researchers say they hope to continue developing plants that are as close to allergen-free as possible.
Different groups or different labs are using different tools or different technologies," Dodo says.
“But I think overall everybody’s concerned about bringing the solution to the problem of allergies.”
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