Description:
Non-cellulosic polysaccharides, including xylans, are key components of the cell walls in cereal grain tissues. These non-cellulosic polysaccharides constitute less than 10% of the overall weight of the grain; however they are important determinants of grain quality. Xylans are important in the large-scale feed and food processing activities, including brewing, and have attracted renewed interest more recently because of their beneficial effects in human nutrition.
The identification of this gene will allow for us to use genetic techniques to increase or decrease the amount of xylan in the plant, dependent upon the required outcome. It will also allow for accurate identification of plants with the gene, and the number of copies of the gene within the plant, thereby enabling the user to use non-GM techniques to produce plants with higher and lower amounts of xylan.
Areas for use:
1. Human nutrition – increase dietary fibre by increasing the level of xylan in the plant.
2. Monogastric nutrition – decrease anti-nutritive effects of xylan by decrease the level of xylan in the plant.
3. Beer and malting – decrease the amount of xylan in barley to decrease wort and beer viscosity
4. Baking – manipulation of the amount of xylan can significantly affect the water- holding capacity of dough and thus the shelf-life of the product.
5. Paper and pulping – xylans are a major component of wood so their manipulation will have effects on paper quality and pulp production.
6. Biofuels – decrease the amount of xylan to increase recoverable sugars
The gene can also be used to produce xylan in a recombinant expression system.
Opportunity:
Each of these markets is considerable and we will detail the value proposition for each, as the interested customer details its requirements.
This patent may be commercialised alongside 2 other Polysaccharide Synthase (F and H) patents.