Developing high fibre grains for good health

Wednesday, 25 July 2007

The University of Adelaide will be helping to develop healthier high fibre grain varieties as part of a new $12.7 million research alliance launched in Canberra today.

The High Fibre Grains Research Cluster will combine the expertise and resources of the University of Queensland, the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne and CSIRO, through the CSIRO's Food Futures National Research Flagship, to develop wheats with improved health benefits and heightened value for the grains industry.

The fibre component of whole grains forms an important part of a healthy diet. The Cluster aims to improve the fibre qualities of grains, focusing on the biggest source of fibre in grains - non-starch polysaccharides of the plant cell wall.

"These polysaccharides have significant benefits for human nutrition and health," says Professor Geoff Fincher, Director of the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus. "They can lower cholesterol, they reduce the rate of glucose release in the small intestine, which is particularly important for people with certain types of diabetes, and they may help prevent certain types of cancers. And as part of dietary fibre they improve general bowel health."

Last year Professor Fincher's research group for the first time identified and isolated genes involved in the production of beta-glucan, one of the two main families of non-starch polysaccharides in cereals. This research was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, and was published in Science (31 March 2006, Vol 311).

As part of the new Food Futures Flagship Cluster, the University of Adelaide team will build on this research to try and increase beta-glucan content in cereals, including wheat, which currently has lower levels than both barley and oats.

"Initial results are looking promising," says Professor Fincher. "We've already managed to manipulate these genes in barley to produce more of these beneficial polysaccharides in grains." The Adelaide team will also be looking at the influence of the detailed chemical structure of beta-glucan on human health.

The Cluster will invest more than $12.7 million in the collaboration over three years, with the university partners receiving more than $3.6 million directly from the Flagship Collaboration Fund. Of this, $1.34 million will support the University of Adelaide's projects at the Waite Campus. The Fund enables the skills of the wider Australian research community to be applied to the major national challenges targeted by CSIRO's Flagship initiative.

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