Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have developed a method which prevents unwanted toxins from entering the edible parts of plants such as oilseed rape, which may increase their suitability for use as animal feed.

Plants produce a variety of toxins to defend themselves against pests to diseases. Oilseed rape plants produce glucosinolates as a defence, which, unlike the healthy glucosinolates found in plants such as broccoli are harmful to animals when consumed in larger amounts, meaning their suitability for use in animal feed is limited. Although rich in protein, due to the glucosinolates the plant produces farmers can only use a limited amount of rapeseed in pig and chicken feed.

However, a team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen has developed a method to hinder unwanted toxins from entering the edible parts of the plant. Published this week in the scientific journal Nature, the scientists believe their technology will have implications for feed crops.

"We have developed an entirely new technology that we call 'transport engineering'. It can be used to eliminate unwanted substances from the edible parts of crops," Professor Barbara Ann Halkier, head of the Center of Excellence for Dynamic Molecular Interactions (DynaMo) at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Science, told Farming Online. She explained that, in addition to oilseed rape, the technique can be used to eliminate the accumulation of toxic compounds in seeds, tubers and other edible parts of a variety of crops.

She elaborated, “In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) we identified two transporters of the defence compounds glucosinolates. When we mutated both transporters we obtained a plant that had glucosinolate-free seeds; the import of the defence compounds glucosinolates was blocked. The defence compounds were still in the vegetative part of the plants, i.e. leaves and roots, so the plant was still able to defend itself against herbivorous insects and microbial pathogens.”

This means plants subjected to the technique produce seeds free of toxins, but the natural defences remain in the rest of the plant, meaning they are potentially suitable for feed and no more susceptible to pest activity.

Professor Halkier explained that the ‘transport engineering’ technology, which focuses on eliminating transporter genes, can be achieved perfectly well without recourse to genetic engineering. She added, “It can be implemented with non-GM techniques by generation of the transporter mutants through chemical mutagenesis (e.g. Tilling).”

The process has already attracted the interest of major agribusinesses; following the successful results achieved with thale cress, Professor Halkier said the technology is ready to be implemented in OSR, and that agchem giant Bayer Crop Science is now negotiating with the Tech Trans unit at her University over the possibility of collaboration on deploying the new technology in OSR.

However, she estimated it would take another five to 10 years before such crops are made commercially available. Although Halkier has assured that the technique will have implications for food security and improve Europe’s ability to cultivate better home-grown feed, eliminating the need to import soy from South America, often at a high financial and environmental cost, advocates of sustainable farming techniques have claimed that agroecological methods are readily available to meet such challenges now and that only beligerent and bullish ideologies are preventing their wider uptake.  

The research on ‘transport engineering’ has been ongoing for 16 years. The Copenhagen-based team behind the study has received funding from a variety of sources during this time, including from Danish research councils (FTP and FNU), university-funded PhD stipends, EU grants, and Danish National Research Foundation, as well as private funding through Novo Nordic Foundation, Villum foundation and Carlsberg foundation.

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