<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> 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 [log in to unmask]