IT SOUNDS unappealing, but rice containing human genes is to be grown in the US. Rather than end up on dinner plates, the rice will make human proteins useful for treating infant diarrhoea in the developing world.
On 28 February, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave a provisional go-ahead for three types of the rice to be planted over 1300 hectares in Kansas. Developed by Ventria Bioscience of Sacramento, California, the rice varieties have been given genes that either make the human breast milk proteins lactoferrin and lysozyme or the human blood protein albumin.
鈥淭he rice varieties havegenes for human breast milk proteins or blood proteins鈥�
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Ventria plans to extract the albumin for industrial use in cell cultures, while the milk proteins are destined for rehydration drinks used to treat infants with diarrhoea. Trials on 140 children in Peru show the proteins give children a better chance of overcoming the condition and help them recover more than a day faster, compared with kids not treated this way.
However, US consumer groups have voiced fears that seeds from the modified rice will mix with and contaminate edible rice. The USDA says this is unlikely, as no other rice is grown on a commercial scale in Kansas. Ventria points out that in any case trace amounts of both proteins are found in human saliva and both are safe to eat, a view it hopes to get rubber-stamped by the Food and Drug Administration. Members of the public have until 30 March to comment on the proposals.
