*EPF406 01/27/00
Researcher Cites Improved Soybeans for Healthier Foods
(Biotechnology provides soybeans containing desirable fats) (780)
By Jim Fuller
Washington File Science Correspondent

The Hague -- A research scientist with DuPont Corporation says an intense 15-year effort to modify the genome of soybeans to produce desirable fats is leading to healthier foods and useful materials for consumers.

John Pierce, director of trait and technology development at DuPont, said at a biotechnology conference in The Hague January 21 that until now farmers have been the primary beneficiaries of plant engineering developments such as herbicide resistant seeds. He predicts the next phase of the plant revolution will emphasize the engineering of desirable traits that will mainly benefit the consumer.

Pierce said, for example, that after a long series of chemical studies in the United States it was shown that a diet containing soy from soybeans produces a substantial decrease in total cholesterol in humans.

"This is a good thing," Pierce said. "People have to take medicines to try to control their cholesterol levels."

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration permitted a health claim to be placed on soy products indicating the beneficial effects of an increased soy diet on cardiovascular health.

"However, one of the problems with soybeans is getting them widely adopted and used in those parts of the world that have cardiovascular problems, that is, the Western world," Pierce said. "Many people don't like the bitter taste of soybeans. They also have antinutritional components in them."

But the selection of superior strains and conventional breeding have led to development of soybeans that have a high concentration of sucrose, and at the same time are very low in antinutritional components.

"So you now have a sweet bean that's digestible," Pierce said. "And now you can take these soybeans and use them in a variety of products -- in soy milks, in cereals, in any number of normal, mainstream products that people can consume and get the benefits that are inherent in a soy diet."

Pierce said, however, that soybeans are being made even better by using biotechnology to modify the types of oils that they produce. Soybean oil represents a major source of calories for the world's population, making up 30 percent of the oil consumed worldwide and 8 percent of the oil consumed in the United States.

Pierce explained that common varieties of soybean seeds contain mainly polyunsaturated fatty acids that decompose when heated. In order to achieve more stability and a higher melting point, industrial hydrogenation has been used, although it creates unhealthy trans fatty acids that have been linked to cardiovascular disease.

Through genetic modification, however, soybean seeds have been developed that mainly produce a monounsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid. Large areas of these strains of soybeans are now under cultivation.

"These seeds produce a soybean oil that is 85 percent oleic acid," Pierce said. "This is the monounsaturated fatty acid that predominates in olive oil. It's a very stable oil for cooking, and you can use it in a variety of applications. And if you couple the high-sucrose bean with the high-oleic bean, you get a very tasty soybean that has all types of food uses.

"So what we hope is that this lowly soybean, which comes from China and grows in the United States, will be able to have even greater utility in the food supply by taking advantage of its inherent qualities," Pierce added.

Pierce said another major effort that's destined to become an important component of biotechnology is the development of new materials from renewable sources. For example, researchers have succeeded in using soybean plants to produce vernolic and ricinoleic acids, derivatives of oleic acid that are used as hardeners in paints and plastics. The necessary genes were derived from Vernonia and castor bean seeds and were transferred into the soybean genomes.

In a related development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology microbiologists at the Palm Oil Research Institute in Malaysia have launched a multimillion-dollar project to genetically engineer the oil palm to produce everything from improved oils to biodegradable plastics.

The palm, which grows on plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Central America, produces up to 10 times more oil per hectare than canola or soybean, the top oil producers in temperate climates. It is believed that the market for the oil could expand if genetic engineers could redirect enzymatic pathways to produce an oil richer in oleic acid for cooking oils, or stearic acid, used as a cocoa butter substitute and a raw material for soaps and shaving creams.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)
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