(JP)Spinach gene in pigs promises healthier cutlets

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020125a5.htm

 

Spinach gene in pigs promises healthier cutlets

 

Japanese researchers have announced that they

succeeded in transplanting a spinach gene into a pig

in order to change pig fat into linoleic acid, a

principal unsaturated fatty acid found in plants and

considered essential to animal nutrition.

 

It is the first time in the world that a plant gene

has been made to function properly in a mammal, the

group led by Akira Iritani, professor at the School of

Biology-Oriented Science and Technology at Osaka-based

Kinki University, said Tuesday.

 

Iritani, an expert in embryology engineering, said his

group will now be able to apply the new technique to

producing genetically modified foods and investigate

the safety of using modified pigs as food products.

 

Iritani and Norio Murata, professor at the National

Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Aichi

Prefecture, and YS New Technology Institute, Inc., a

venture company in genetic engineering in Tochigi

Prefecture, jointly conducted the study.

 

The researchers directly implanted a gene called FAD2

into fertilized pig eggs and implanted them into the

womb of a surrogate mother pig that gave birth to

piglets with the modified gene.

 

The genetically modified pigs had about a 20 percent

higher linoleic acid rate in their fat than normal

pigs. They were healthy and had normal reproductive

capacities and were confirmed to carry the same trait

to the third generation. FAD2 is an enzyme that

changes oleic acid, another unsaturated fatty acid,

into linoleic acid, which is necessary for normal

growth of mammals.

 

The enzyme is contained in plants such as spinach, but

mammals, including humans, have to intake it from food

as they do not carry it.

 

The group has also succeeded in increasing linoleic

acid in mice by 40 percent and is aiming at producing

pigs with more linoleic acid as well as implanting

other essential fatty acid in pigs.

 

The Japan Times: Jan. 25, 2002

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