Bioscience Evidence 2025, Vol.15, No.5, 228-236 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/be 228 Research Insight Open Access Genetic Approaches to Minimize Gluten in Wheat Guiping Zhang, Wei Wang Institute of Life Sciences, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding email: wei.wang@jicat.org Bioscience Evidence, 2025, Vol.15, No.5 doi: 10.5376/be.2025.15.0023 Received: 03 Aug., 2025 Accepted: 11 Sep., 2025 Published: 24 Sep., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Zhang and Wang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Zhang G.P., and Wang W., 2025, Genetic approaches to minimizegluten in wheat, 15(5): 228-236 (doi: 10.5376/be.2025.15.0023) Abstract The gluten in wheat is the key to making staple foods like bread taste good. But it is also the main cause of celiac disease and some gluten intolerance diseases. Nowadays, there are many ways to reduce gluten, such as RNA interference, gene editing, mutagenesis screening and molecular marker breeding. Gene editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas9 can precisely knock out or modify multiple copies of the alcohol-soluble protein gene. This can significantly reduce the immune response while still retaining the processing performance of the dough. Researchers have obtained low-gluten wheat strains without genetically modified residues. Methods such as RNAi and TILLING can also lower the level of low-gluten protein and improve the nutritional components of wheat. These improvement measures not only offer celiac disease patients safer choices of staple foods, but also drive the development of healthy foods. In the future, if multi-omics analysis, personalized breeding and synthetic biology can be combined, it is possible to cultivate a new generation of low-gluten wheat that is both safe and delicious. This is precisely the goal of our research. Keywords Wheat; Gluten; Gene editing; CRISPR/Cas9; RNA interference 1 Introduction Wheat is one of the world's most important food crops, providing energy and protein for billions of people. It can be cultivated in many regions not only because of its high yield and strong adaptability, but also because gluten protein gives bread, noodles and other foods good taste and processing performance (Sanzan-Leon et al., 2017; Pourmohammadi et al., 2023). Gluten is mainly composed of two types of proteins: gliadins and glutenins. Glutenin makes the dough sticky, while glutenin gives it elasticity. The two work together to form the special properties of wheat dough, which is an important basis for making bread and baked goods (Jouanin et al., 2020). However, some small fragments in gluten, especially the immunogenic epitopes in α-, γ- and ω -olysin, can cause diseases in some populations, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), and wheat allergy (Sanchez-Leon et al., 2017; Jouanin et al., 2020; Sharma et al., 2020; Asri et al., 2021) Patients with celiac disease must adhere to a gluten-free diet for life. However, gluten-free foods often require additives, have poor taste and unbalanced nutrition, which makes it difficult for patients to adhere to. Traditional methods, such as fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis or physical separation, although they can partially reduce gluten, often damage dough performance and are difficult to completely remove harmful fragments (Jouanin et al., 2017; Pilolli et al., 2019; Sharma et al., 2020). In recent years, genetic improvement has become a research focus. Scientists used methods such as RNA interference (RNAi), gene editing (CRISPR/Cas9), and mutagenesis to silence, knockout or modify the genes of alcohol-soluble proteins and some gluten proteins. The results showed that these methods could significantly reduce gluten content and immune activity while maintaining dough quality to the greatest extent (Sanchet-Leon et al., 2017; Jouanin et al., 2019; Moehs et al., 2019; Jouanin et al., 2020; Asri et al., 2021; Wen et al., 2022; Bennur et al., 2024). This study will sort out the genetic methods used in the research of low gluten in wheat in recent years, with a focus on the principles and effects of gene editing, RNAi and mutagenesis. It will also discuss their impact on quality and safety, as well as issues related to screening, detection and regulations. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies will be compared to explore how to cultivate low-gluten wheat that is both safe and of high quality, providing better staple food options for patients with celiac disease and related conditions.
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