Thogh reaching it to your dinner table is still a long way off, scientists at the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) here have been celebrating an indigenous GM potato breakthrough which they claim will supplement diets low in lysine. The CPRI’s genetically modified (GM) potato has recorded eight times the normal lysine content during trials on deployed potato; it also marked an ‘‘incidental’’ increase in its protein level by about 50 per cent.

One of the 20 amino acids normally found in proteins, lysine is an essential amino acid, the human nutritional requirement being 1-1.5 gram daily. The researchers believe that GM potato could be the vegetarian answer to egg or other animal proteins due to its high bioavailability.

This is the first GM potato developed in the country by insertion of AmA-1 gene derived from the Amaranthus plant. Professor Asis Datta and his team at the National Centre for Plant Genome Research, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, have developed the gene and patented in the US.

Dr SK Pandey, director of CPRI, Shimla, says the research is aimed at making potato a wholesome food. There are some amino acids which are missing in potato but available in cereals. Induction of the AmA-1 gene compensates for those missing amino acids in potato. The AmA-1 gene construct is put into the background of Jyoti, Sinduri, Sutlej, Pukhraj and Jawahar varieties of potato grown in the country.

The GM potato is now in its conclusive phase of field trials at Jalandhar, Delhi and Shimla, Dr Pandey says. The research on the project began in 1998.

... contd.