Aleksandr Ermoshin: "We Can Change Two or Three Genes So Far"

10:13, July 19, 2022

The scientist told how to improve the nutritional properties of food

Aleksandr Ermoshin, Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental Biology and Biotechnologies of Ural Federal University, told Schrödinger's Cat Magazine about the meal that is enough to fill one spoon, how to increase the nutritional value of food and how many genes scientists are already able to change.

"The main nutrients our bodies need (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) have a certain amount of calories. You need 2,000-2,500 calories daily if you have an average body weight and mostly sit in front of a computer. If you have an active lifestyle, even more calories are needed. However, one gram of protein always has the same amount calories as one gram of fat does. It turns out that in a day we should get a hundred grams of protein, a hundred grams of fat, plus some amount of carbohydrates, and therefore, this mass we have to eat. However, there will never be a hundred grams of protein and a hundred grams of fat in a teaspoon of porridge. The amount of our food will remain quite large," the scientist explains.

Researchers work to improve the nutritional properties of food. The difficulty here is that quantitative characteristics are usually polygenic - a system with many genes is responsible for them. That is why it is difficult to breed, for example, plants with a dramatic increase in protein content through classical breeding.

"Genetic engineering is not an easy way to do it either: so far we are able to change two or three genes at a time, while here we are talking about the coordinated work of dozens of genes. At the same time, people have already achieved a lot: the ancestors of the potato did not form tubers at all, and wild tomatoes were as small as a fingernail," adds Aleksandr Ermoshin.

Plant breeders increased not only the size of the plants, but also their nutrient content. That is, they managed to select plants that contain more carbohydrates or fats, such as oilseeds, or more protein. However, classical selection is already close to saturation; it is unlikely that biologists will be able to increase the protein or fat content of food even further.

"In addition, there is a third side of this question: the nutritional value of a product is not only its energy value. There are essential amino acids that we have to get from food. Protein containing all the essential amino acids is called complete," explains Ermoshin.

However, plant proteins are mostly incomplete. For example, grains have little lysine and some plant foods are poor in tryptophan, which means that vegetarians need to combine different types of plant foods and consume them in much larger amounts (compared to animal foods) to compensate for the deficit of these amino acids.

The work is being done in the area of increasing the nutritional value of plants, and this is where genetic engineering comes in handy.

"For example, we can inject into a plant the genes responsible for the synthesis of specific proteins from another plant or animal that is more complete in terms of deficient amino acids. Then the transgenic plant will begin to synthesize a complete protein with the missing amino acids. If I am not mistaken, more than a decade ago corn with the genes of one of the proteins of cashew was created, and now the protein of this corn contains those very essential amino acids," adds the scientist.

Science is moving forward in this direction as well: although we definitely will not be full from one tablespoon, we create plants with more protein, with more complete proteins and with more vitamins, both by classical breeding methods and by genetically engineered methods.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
info.international@urfu.ru, +7 (343) 375-45-19