Novel starch types

The use of starch in diverse non-food, food, brewing, and chemical applications ultimately depends on the structure of the starch and the specific properties that structure confers. Starch structure, in turn, derives from the activity of the key starch synthetic enzymes. Modulation of the activities of the starch synthetic enzymes, or the introduction of novel enzymatic activities, can thus yield starches with specific properties during starch synthesis in the plant. This is the general strategy we are taking with barley and endosperm starch biosynthesis. We are developing this approach through a combination of plant tissue culture transformation and whole-plant transformation. These efforts link up with large Nordic and European efforts to understand and alter starch biosynthesis.

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