Prospects for developing allergen-depleted food crops
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In addition to the challenge of meeting global demand for food production, there are
increasing concerns about food safety and the need to protect consumer health from
the negative effects of foodborne allergies. Certain bio-molecules (usually proteins)
present in food can act as allergens that trigger unusual immunological reactions,
with potentially life-threatening consequences. The relentless working lifestyles of
the modern era often incorporate poor eating habits that include readymade prepackaged and processed foods, which contain additives such as peanuts, tree nuts, wheat,
and soy-based products, rather than traditional home cooking. Of the predominant
allergenic foods (soybean, wheat, fish, peanut, shellfish, tree nuts, eggs, and milk),
peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are the best characterized source of allergens, followed
by tree nuts (Juglans regia, Prunus amygdalus, Corylus avellana, Carya illinoinensis, Anacardium occidentale, Pistacia vera, Bertholletia excels), wheat (Triticum
aestivum), soybeans (Glycine max), and kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). The
prevalence of food allergies has risen significantly in recent years including chance of
accidental exposure to such foods. In contrast, the standards of detection, diagnosis,
and cure have not kept pace and unfortunately are often suboptimal. In this review, we
mainly focus on the prevalence of allergies associated with peanut, tree nuts, wheat,
soybean, and kidney bean, highlighting their physiological properties and functions
as well as considering research directions for tailoring allergen gene expression. In
particular, we discuss how recent advances in molecular breeding, genetic engineering, and genome editing can be used to develop potential low allergen food crops that
protect consumer health.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Lokya, V., Parmar, S., Pandey, A. K., Sudini, H. K., Huai, D., Ozias-Akins, P., Foyer, C. H., Nwosu, C. V., Karpinska, B., Baker, A., Xu, P., Liao, B., Mir, R. R., Chen, X., Guo, B., Nguyen, H. T., Kumar, R., Bera, S. K., Singam, P., . . . Pandey, M. K. (2023). Prospects for developing allergen-depleted food crops. The Plant Genome, 16, e20375. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20375