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A friend shared an interesting page with me.  In the Letters to the
Editor  of Chemical & Engineering News (5/10/99) there appeared the
following:

"Gluten in Modified Crops
This letter is written in regard to your editorial and to the article
'Transforming Agriculture'    (C&EN, 5/19, pages 3 and 21).  I am not
against progress and improvements in plants so as to acquire traits like
disease resistance.  But I am bothered by statements such as ' a new
generation of crops...soybeans with higher amino acid content' in your
editorial and 'modified amino acid composition' in the article.

What are the implications to those people with Celiac-Sprue disease --
one of every 3,000 people in the U.S. -- who must maintain a gluten-free
diet?  Currently, rice and soybeans are two of the crops that people
with this disorder can eat.  The gluten in wheat, oats, barley, and rye
is toxic to them.

How are the proteins to be modified and is there any possibility that
the modification would produce a peptide sequence that might look like
wheat gluten, for example?

You speak of the biology-chemistry connection, but there is also
amedical connection.  In the last paragraph of your editorial you quote
biotechnology pioneer Jerry Caulder, who speaks of a "way to control our
food destiny.'  This is very important to individuals with Celiac-Sprue.
Already, most of the foods in the supermarket are verboten and Celiac
Sprue sufferers must stay on the alert for any offending additive, as it
takes very little gluten to make them sick.

Fortunately, Rockefeller Institute, which is conducting experiments on
rice, say that the rice proteins already represent a nutritionally
well-balanced mixture of amino acids and they do not intend to change
it.'

>From Richard Holroyd in Stony Brook, NY

Janet in Houston
Celiacs Helping Celiacs
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