Scientists have cloned a gene from wild wheat that they hope could boost the nutritional value of bread and pasta and help fight world hunger, the US Department of Agriculture said. Researchers at the University of California-Davis and the University of Haifa in Israel cloned the gene, GPC-B1, which increases grain protein, zinc and iron content.
The project was funded by the Agriculture Department and a bilateral US-Israeli research fund, USDA said in a statement.
“As a major crop across the globe, providing 20 percent of all calories consumed by humans, any improvement in the nutritional value of wheat would have substantial health benefits for much of the world’s population,” Gale Buchanan, USDA’s undersecretary for research, education and economics, said in a statement.
GPC-B1 increases grain protein and micronutrient content by up to 15 percent in some wheat varieties, USDA said. The hope is that pasta and bread made from wheat with a functional copy of the gene would be more healthy.
The research was partially funded by USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.
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