A tobacco-like plant that produces nutrients found in breast milk

Scientists have successfully genetically engineered a tobacco-like plant to produce nutrients found in human breast milk.

The technology could pave the way for artificial infant formula that more closely replicates the health benefits of breastfeeding, according to the team behind the work.

The study showed that genetically modified bentham tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) can produce complex sugars called human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) that promote healthy gut bacteria and have benefits for the immune system of infants.

“Imagine being able to produce all the oligosaccharides in human milk in one plant,” said Dr. Patrick Shih, a plant and microbial biologist who led the work at the University of California, Berkeley. “Then you could just grind up that plant, and extract all the oligosaccharides at once.” "Adding it directly to infant formula will have a lot of challenges in implementation and marketing, but that's the big goal we're trying to move toward."

Breast milk contains about 200 different types of human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), which are the third most abundant solid component in human milk. They are indigestible for the infant, but serve as food for the bacteria that colonize the intestines during the first weeks of life.

Currently, a few human milk oligosaccharides can be synthesized using Escherichia coli (E coli) bacteria.Genetically modified, major manufacturers have begun including these compounds in their products, but the complexity and costs of the process have limited their widespread adoption.

In the latest study published in the journal Nature Food, scientists reprogrammed the sugar-making machinery in bantam tobacco that is responsible for linking simple sugars, called monosaccharides, into vast groups of branched chains that form complex sugars.

The scientists introduced genes designed to produce specific enzymes required to synthesize the essential sugars into a variety of oligosaccharides in human milk. Transgenic plants produced 11 known protected oligosaccharides.

“We have made all three major groups of oligosaccharides in human milk,” Shih said. “To my knowledge, no one has ever shown that you can make all three groups simultaneously in a single organism.”

This breakthrough includes the production of LNFP1, which has been associated with fewer infections in infants, but cannot be made in large quantities using microbial fermentation methods.

This approach could lead to healthy, affordable formula for infants, or more nutritious dairy-free plant-based milk for adults, Shih and his colleagues explained.

“This could lead not only to improved plant-based dairy products for infants, but also to many other aspects of diet and health for adults,” Shih added. “Plants are already engineered to produce oils and fatty acids that are better for our health. These are just a few examples of a growing list of ways in which Through it we can begin to create plants specifically designed to improve human health.