David Sands MSU
Professor of PLANT PATHOLOGY
Paleo Foods
Learn from our ancestors?
Learn from nature?
Even before Paleo times we looked
carefully at food before we ate it.
X
Readings:
“Before the Dawn” Nicolas Wade 2006
“Pandora’s Seed” Spencer Wells 2010
“The Journey of Man” Spencer Wells 2004
“The 10,000 Year Explosion” Cochran 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLA-DQ8
From Pandora’s Seed
by Spencer Wells
Paleo
X
Shift to cereal
grains
Y
The ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3
fatty acids in the Inuit diet is…
2:1 or 1:1
Our Western Diet ratio is 25:1
Omega-3 Fatty Acids…
An important nutrient to focus on in crop
production.
High in some Paleo Foods
Re: The Paleo Diet
By Loren Cordain
Colorado State Univ.
Basic Biochemistry of
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
(PUFA’s):
• Natural constituents of animal and plant lipids
• Long carbon chain with one end methyl group,
other carboxyl group
ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
In the Western population is a chronic shortfall in
consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly
those of marine origin, such as EPA and DHA.
Essential Fatty Acid Omega 3 Consumption
Chile
South America
North America
Asia
Europe
Recommendation
0,00
0,20
0,40
0,60
0,80
Fatty acids Omega 3 (g/day)
Source: Rev. chil. nutr. v.32 n.1 Santiago abr. 2005.
1,00
1,20
1,40
Why Omega-3’s?
I need
omega-3
I need
omega-3
Brain Cells
Omega-3’s Enhance Mental Acuity
• Mice in maze
• Dogs (Trainability)
• People
• Our interest is in
classroom performance
Camelina sativa
•
•
•
•
Romans used to eat the meal and burn the oil in their lamps
Oil of Olay and other cosmetics
It grows well in Montana
High in omega-3 and high in antioxidants (tocopherols,
mainly gamma)
• We have high omega-3 peanut butter, beef, eggs, cheese,
milk, bread and salad oil
• And if there is any left, it is biodiesel
Jet Fuel from an omega-3 crop?
The camelina meal is 40% protein and 13% oil
Approved for beef and poultry rations.
Yum. Omega-3 eggs, and beef.
Culinary Applications
Omega-3 Bread
Omega-3 Content of Bread
(Wheat Montana)
18:3 in mg/kg
250.00
200.00
150.00
100.00
50.00
0.00
Camelina
Canola
Oil Ingrediant
Development of camelina bread is a cooperative project with
Wheat Montana Bakery
Focus on Gluten Free Crops/Products:
Gluten Intolerance:
• 2 million Americans
(at least)
• 30 million people
worldwide
• Most are HLA-DQ2 or DQ8
Celiac Disease
Normal
Celiac
Intestinal Villi
Intestinal Villi
Gluten is the seed storage protein in Wheat, Rye,
Barley, and Triticale
Certain grassy weeds
also contain gluten.
Our Research:
New Gluten-Free Crops
•A grain used by Native
Americans 7,000 years ago.
•It has no detectable
gluten.
•The Amazing Grains
Cooperative in Ronan, Montana
has 53 growers dedicated to
producing this grain.
Indian Ricegrass
Indian Rice Grass vs. Wheat
Essential amino acid
Indian Rice
Grass
Wheat
Lysine
3.2
2.4
Méthionine
2.1
0.5
Threonine
3.7
2.8
Isoleucine
2.8
5.3
Valine
3.5
2.1
Leucine
7.9
4.6
Arginine
9.3
2.2
Histidine
3.9
1.2
Phenylalanine
5.8
4.7
% total Protein
42.2
26.8
Montina Gluten-Free Flour
Is fortification needed in glutenfree products? YES!
PROATINA : HIGH PROTEIN GLUTEN FREE OATS
Most oats are hulled
Most oats are about 12 % protein
Most oats are not produced GF
MSU released PrOatina, a nude
oat with about 20% protein
(Gluten Free Processors,
Belgrade, Montana), produces and
packages this GF product as a hot
cereal and as a flour.
Timtana
• Timothy is a pasture grass
• It is a favorite of horses
• When we made flour from timothy seed we
were pleasantly surprised!
• Timtana resulted, a high protein , flavorable,
gluten-free flour for baking.
• Timtana is a stand alone flour for baking
• Timtana is available now, processed and milled
in Belgrade MT, at MTGluten Free Processors
Type 2 Diabetes
cases reported in
US by the CDC
Something Has Gone Wrong…
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1990, 1999, 2009
(*BMI 30, or about 30 lbs. overweight for 5’4” person)
1999
1990
2009
No Data
<10%
10%–14%
15%–19%
20%–24%
25%–29%
≥30%
Diabetes
Obesity
Combined
CDC Data
Bohannen, J. 25 SEPTEMBER 2009 VOL 325 SCIENCE, 16-14-1617
Zinc addition to Turkish Crop - Wheat
Zinc deficiency
• In Turkey, 50% of the arable soils were
found to be zinc deficient. The
deficiency also occurs in Afghanistan,
Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Syria,
• Human symptoms of zinc deficiency
include, geophagia, stunting,
abnormal behavior- depression and
violence..
• A penny is 98% zinc…
Seeds – A good place to start
Plantlet
Seed coat
Endosperm
Nutrient and
energy reserves
Man’s priorities for seeds
• Large seed, easy to harvest.
• Digestible protein with quick release
of appropriate essential amino acids.
• No toxins.
• Soluble polymers.
• Acceptable taste.
• Long storage life.
• No rot, no rancidity of oils.
• Soluble fibers.
Plants’ priorities for seeds
• Embryo must stay alive.
• Control dehydration - rehydration:
– polymerize all small hydrophilic molecules
– (starch,
cellulose).
protein,
cellulose,
hemi
– remove ions such as phosphate, Zn, Fe,
from
solution
(Insoluble
inositol
hexaphosphate = phytic acid ).
• Store oils, in fat bodies.
• Feeding animals is
not on the list!
The Problem: Nutrient Poor Foods
Solutions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
No more empty calories
More and better protein in grains
Less Omega-6 and more Omega-3 oils
Vitamins and Minerals
More Fiber
Affordable
7. Oh!… Gluten Free and tasty!
Cereal-Based Diets, Egypt
The Breeder’s Dilemma
Insects selectively eat the more nutritious
plants.
They have lysine taste receptors
Take home lesson:
We have been breeding
against nutrition for
centuries.
The Breeder’s Dilemma: Yield vs Nutrition
Morris and Sands: Nature Biotechnology Sept. 2006
Grasshopper damage to high
lysine wheat cultivars
Insect damage points/30'
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
HL19-EM1
1689-90
1691-92
Wheat Variety
HL37-A1
WILD TYPE
•6 Independent/Non-biased Evaluators
•4 Rows/Variety (HL37-A1 was wild type)
•2 day Compiled Results of Grasshopper Predation
•Conclusions- Recipes, anyone, for grasshopper soup ?
The Selection Against Nutrition,
A Conundrum
• Aphids, grasshoppers, rats and deer all have
the ability to taste essential amino acids, and
they selectively choose the plants highest in
nutrition.
• Therefore: Plant breeders inadvertently select
for the least nutritious plants because of
animal predation.
• “The Breeder’s Dilemma” C.E. Morris and D.C.
Sands 2006 Nature Biotechnology
Superprotein :
Looks something
like this.
OR THIS
Superprotein
Oh! No! The Devil Made Me do It
…the GMO Word!
Percent of protein
Protein
Lys
Ile
Met
Thr
Trp Total
Lactalbumin
9.1
6.2
2.5
5.2
2.2
25
Barley
3.4
4.3
1.4
3.4
1.3
14
Superprotein*
21.6
8.1
16.3
10.8
10.8
68
* Designed supplemental nutritional protein, Jaynes ,Sands ‘84
Starches
(Amylose, amylopectin) and seeds
STRAIGHT
Amylose
•Supercoils when heated
•Digested slowly (LOW
GLYCEMIC INDEX-GOOD)
•Slow synthesis in seed
Amylopectin
•Cannot coil
•Digested quickly (HIGH
GLYCEMIC INDEX-BAD)
•Rapid synthesis in seed
BRANCHED
The World Food Problem
Striga Research, Maseno, Kenya
Striga
Comparison of Kenya strains of Foxy S
M e an corn grain we ight (kg)
Mean corn grain weight (kg)
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
C
C
C2
C1
0
K1CR
KSM2
KSM1
KSM3
KSM4
Tre atm e nt
Experiment at KARI Expt. Stn., Kibos, Kenya, by Sila Nzioki
Strains collected by Ben Kanyenji and John Sands
STKJIA
The search for the
Perfect Nutritional Protein
Safe
Non-allergenic
Contains all the essential amino acids
Completely digestible
Neutral taste
PINE BARK BEETLE
PROTEIN
So what to do? MSU?
Assess Montana’s principle crops for their nutritional value.
Could we lead the nation in improving the nutritional value of:
Durum Wheat? YES By lowering the glycemic index
Spring and Winter Wheat? YES ditto
Peas?
YES
ditto
Potatoes YES
ditto
Camelina YES BY selecting for higher Omega-3 content.
This is not rocket science but It takes money )(OH GOOD)
Cross-talk with nutritionists (NOT FUN-HUMILIATING)
Market demand for enhanced nutritional foods (FACEBOOK?)
A little bit of high throughput biochemistry (INNOVATION)
Agronomic drivers for
enhanced nutrition in crops.
1. Striga resistance
2. Stem rust resistance
3. Saw fly resistance
4. Roundup resistance
5. Salt tolerance
6. Nitrogen efficiency
The concept =
Use valuable improvements in agronomic traits that improve
production as above, as an opportunity to piggy-back in
some nutritional traits that would not otherwise be
inserted into new crop varieties.
That way we get a two-for, better yields and better nutrition.
Genetic landscape of wheat
World wheat production: 225 M ha
ca. 25% of the surface is planted to
varieties with genes for resistance to stem
rust that are ineffective against the new
race UG99
Concept
• Farmers are subsidized for growing crops,
nutritious or not.
• Continue to subsidize but only for crops with
improved nutrition!
• More nutritious crops would give us health
benefits.
• Subsidies to medical programs would go down.
“In the Future, the safest, most-nutritious food may
well be:
organically- grown and
genetically-modified.”
Example: P. syringae pv. atropurpurea
Leaf Blight on Barley—Globally distributed
P. syringae pv. atropurpurea is seed borne
And seed transmitted.
Checking wheat seed
for infestation by
P. syringae on BCBRVB
selective medium
Determine the abundance of bacterial and other biological ice
nuclei in precipitation
Quantify number of biological ice nuclei and their T°C of activity
Crude samples  lysozyme-treated  boiled
Immersion freezing
assay
INA bacteria
Pseudomonas syringae ♣
P. fluorescens
P. viridiflava ♣
Pantoea agglomerans (Erwinia herbicola) ♣
Xanthomonas campestris pv. translucens ♣
Gram – negative
non spore-forming
♣ epiphytic, some are plant pathogens
Incitants of Frost Injury
Bacterial ice nuclei: the most active
naturally-occurring ice nuclei
Warmest temperature of activity of some ice
nucleation-active materials
silver iodide
-8°C
pollen
-5°C
forest aerosols (tree oils + iodine)
-4°C
atmospheric dust
-8°C
cristalline metaldehyde
-0.4°C
Pseudomonas syringae
-2°C
North central Montana, 1980
Seed for 400 hectares treated, planted, P. syringae moved in within 3
weeks. From where?
Bioprecipitation concept
Sands et al, 1982, 1985
Morris et al, 2004
ice nucleation
enhanced precipitation
aerosolization
upward flux
epiphytic bacterial
growth
Conceivably bacteria via this cycle move down wind across
a continent
Betts 2004
Fig 3. Difference in annual mean precipitation (mm/day) between simulations
with and without vegetation: VEG - NOVEG.
Books
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Genome” and “The Agile Gene” Matt Ridley
“Nexus” and “Ubiquity”, both by M.Buchanan
“Mountains beyond Mountains”
“Guns Germs and Steel” and “Collapse” by Jared
Diamond
“A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson
“Before the Dawn” by Nicolas Wade
“The Journey of Man” by Spencer Wells
“Beyond Structure (The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions) by Kuhn
Barbed Wire
My barbed wire of DNA
Encompasses and delimits me.
With shortcomings written in code.
Within these boundaries, I concoct a life
Of opportunities and misconceptions,
Encoded and scripted from a brief whim.
Empowered hope embodied in double strands,
Wound around each other like paired lovers..
Transparent to light and yet,
Their messages sometimes sorely visible,
Randomly delivered by the postman of time.
DISCOVERY