Japanese create new 'sweet wheat'

[jason.koehler]

My wife found this, and knowing my interest in making beer out of any and everything, she thought this was interesting...

This is translated via webpage, so the language is going to seem pretty odd, but you should be able to get the jist out of it...

＜甘い小麦＞世界で初、スイートコーン並みの糖度
＜Sweet wheat＞The sugar content that I am naive in the world, and a sweet corn is ordinary
12月12日19時47分配信 毎日新聞
The December 12 19:47 delivery Mainichi Shimbun


　東北農業研究センター（盛岡市）と日本製粉（東京都渋谷区）は１２日、遺伝子組み換え技術を使わずに従来 の交配などにより、甘い小麦を世界で初めて開発したと発表した。糖度はスイートコーン並みの２２．２度で、 ケーキやパンに自然の甘さや独特の風味を加えることができ、新たな用途拡大が図れると期待され る。
　I announced that northeastern agriculture research center (Morioka-shi) and Nippon Flour Mills (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) developed sweet wheat by conventional mating for the first time in the world without using gene-recombination technology on 12th. At 22.2 degrees at the same level as a sweet corn, I can add natural over-optimism and a unique flavor to a cake and bread, and a sugar content is expected when I can plan new use expansion.
　小麦は約７割が炭水化物で、ほとんどがアミロースとアミロペクチンというでんぷんが占めている。同研究セ ンターなどは、この２種のでんぷんに着目。アミロースを合成する酵素がない小麦と、アミロペクチンの側鎖を 伸ばす酵素がない小麦を開発し、交配させた。
　About 70% are carbohydrates, and the starch which most call amylose and amylopectin holds wheat. The research centers pay their attention to these two kinds of starch. The enzyme which lengthened wheat without the enzyme which composed amylose and a lateral chain of amylopectin developed the wheat which there was not and crossbred it.
　さらに、ＤＮＡの配列を調べ目的の遺伝子が機能しているかどうかを調べるＤＮＡマーカーにより選抜し、孫 の代で６４通りに分類。その中から２種の酵素が両方ともない小麦を選抜した。受粉後、２５日たった種子の糖 分を調べたところ、通常の小麦にはほとんどない麦芽糖を多く含んでいた。甘くなった理由は研究 中という。
　Furthermore, I choose it by a DNA marker examining whether I examine an arrangement of DNA, and an objective gene functions, and it is a classification to 64 ways for charges of a grandchild. Both two kinds of enzymes selected few wheat from that. There was much malt sugar which there was little and included it in normal wheat when I examined sugar of only a seed after pollination on 25th. It is said that I am studying the reason that became optimistic.
　日本製粉広報グループは「甘い小麦ができたことは予想外。２、３年後にはパン用などで市販を目指したい。 また、健康食品への応用や食品以外でも、さまざまな用途が考えられるので、特性を生かしたものを開発したい 」としている。【石塚孝志】
　Nippon Flour Mills public information group it "is out of expectation that sweet wheat was done". I want to aim at marketing in bread use two or three years later. In addition, I assume that I want to develop the thing which kept a characteristic alive because various uses are thought about even besides application to a health food and food. 【Takashi Ishizuka】

Here's the link to the breakdown of it, structure, etc...this wasn't translateable unfortunately, but those more chemistry inclined might be able to decifer it... http://www.tohoku.affrc.go.jp/press/2006/1212.html

My thoughts were, how would something like this impact beers heavy in unmalted wheat, or what would processing do to something like this? Interesting stuff...

[ChristianSA]

"All your wheat are belong to us"

[jason.koehler]

"All your wheat are belong to us"

Hah, you must play video games too

[AlexisScarlett]

Sweet wheat: I can add natural overoptimism

I found a shorter article but a little easier to understand ( I can't get by conventional mating in paragraph two without giggling) on a very interesting website

Sweet wheat

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/12/sweet-wheat/

On December 12, researchers from Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) and Nippon Flour Mills announced the development of sweet wheat, a hybridized variety of wheat with twice the sugar concentration of common wheat. This first-of-its-kind sweet wheat eliminates the need to add sugar when it is used in cakes or other baked goods, researchers claim.

By repeatedly breeding varieties of wheat with low levels of enzymes associated with starch production, the researchers were able to lower the wheat’s starch content — which is ordinarily around 70% — to 25%. The result is a variety of wheat with a significantly higher concentration of sugars such as maltose and sucrose.

In this way, sweet wheat is similar in concept to sweetcorn, which also was specifically bred to increase its sugar content.Sweet wheat is identical in appearance to common wheat, except that it withers and develops wrinkles when dehydrated. Its natural sweetness gives it a distinctive flavor when it is ground into flour and used as an ingredient in baked goods.

Nippon Flour Mills hopes to make sweet wheat commercially available in two to three years. In the meantime, the company is looking into the possibility of developing new types of food products that draw upon the natural flavor of sweet wheat.