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ries, hash browns, pancakes. Even a battery for a school science fair if you have a particularly creative child. But using potatoes for vaccines for people? That's a truly novel idea. And one pursued by a team of scientists from Ag-Tec International, Ltd., a private firm located in Delavan, Wisconsin. A British company, Axis Genetics commissioned ag-Tec, to grow potatoes containing hepatitis B vaccine. The first clinical trials are to start this year. During the trials, human volunteers will consume small pieces of raw potato, genetically engineered to produce hepatitis B antigens. The antigens work by stimulating human immune system to resist infection. Besides hepatitis B, researchers are developing edible vaccines against such diseases as traveler's diarrhea and cholera. In trials completed so far, 50 or 100 grams of potato successfully prevented bacterial diarrhea, a leading killer of children in developing countries.

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accines made from potatoes have several major advantages over the traditional ones based on yeast's and bacteria. They are cheaper to produce and store, more resistant to contamination, and much easier to administer. After all, who would choose a painful jab with a needle over a serving of French fries? OK, maybe the French fries form of immunization is still a thing of the future. After successful completion of clinical trials, food technologists will have to use their expertise to come up with a more palatable version of vaccinations than pieces of raw potato.
        Potatoes, and other plants (scientists are also researching ways of putting the vaccines in carrots, tomatoes and lettuce), can also be altered to produce contraceptive vaccines to control wildlife populations. This application is currently tested in New Zealand where 70 million brush tail opossums vastly outnumber the 4 million human inhabitants. So far the results are promising.

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he technology that makes potato vaccines possible has arrived here from ...outer space. Almost. More accurately, it involves a Quantum Tubers system, which has been developed by Ag-Tec in cooperation with NASA and ingenious Chinese researchers. The NASA-funded Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WSCAR) has devised growth chambers for new pathogen-free varieties of potato plants. NASA has used its new growth chambers on the space shuttle and the Russian Mir space station. NASA's scientists are currently developing lager chambers for the international space station. The growth chambers, which are computer-controlled, provide an ideal environment for growing disease-free potatoes from tissue, rapidly multiplying clones, with each generation as good as the original.
        The scientific project focusing on growing potato plants in outer space was dubbed "Astroculture." Its major purpose was to find out how we can grow our own food during our stays in space. As flights lengthen, it will be essential to grow food in space rather than provide it using the space shuttle as a deliverer of groceries. Plants in space not only are the food source, but also offer other benefits: through the photosynthetic process they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide oxygen for use by the crew; through the transpiration process they provide fresh water. They also beautify the surroundings.

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rowing plants on a space shuttle is no easy endeavor. Each item on board must be carefully engineered and tested against worst-case scenarios. The conditions of a space station are very different from those we have on Earth. One of the unknowns was the performance of these new growth support systems in minimal gravity. Since fluids behave differently in microgravity, plant-watering systems that work well on Earth do not operate as well in space. Plants need light and water to grow, and providing these two crucial elements in space can be challenging.
         The plant growth system must be able to provide high levels of light - from electrical sources available on orbit - and nutrients as efficiently as possible. This means, for example, that the levels of power and humidity have to be strictly controlled. Excessive humidity can damage experiments and equipment, while its insufficient levels can injure the plants.

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otatoes were ideal for the 16-day mission of United States Microgravity Laboratory-2 (USML-2) in 1995 because their tubers form in two weeks. Researchers also wanted to know how starch accumulation in plant progresses in outer space. Starch is important energy storage compound in plants and there were indications that starch accumulation may be negatively affected by microgravity.
         As it turned out the space spuds from Astroculture were just fine, thank you - in no significant way different from their terrestrial counterparts. And the carefully planned and conducted experiment, Astroculture has already resulted in several commercial products to use on Earth in research, medicine and agricultural applications. One of them is improved production of potato plants for farmers everywhere.
         The new technology will save growers about five years in breeding new varieties of potatoes. The Chinese system of speeding plant development helps shorten the growing process. Quantum Tubers growth chambers combined with Chinese system of speeding plant development are a recipe for prolific and healthy harvests. Compressing the growth cycle produces an abundance of minitubers - several million annually from a small area.
         In the U.S., the system, which also provides cheaper earlier generation seeds, has been successfully employed with 60 commercial varieties of potatoes.
         Although this biomanufacturing process has been be first implemented in the United States, its major benefits should be really visible in countries lacking potato certification programs, where seed potatoes are often diseased and weak.

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he technology of Quantum Tubers will be franchised in several countries, according to Ag-Tec's president, Robert Britt. So far India, Mexico, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Egypt are interested. Quantum Tubers will start production of minitubers in Poland this year. Polish potato growers desperately need new varieties of plants. It is estimated that about 85% of the potatoes in Poland are so diseased that they qualify only for livestock feed. The introduction of modified minitubers should change the situation dramatically. Britt states that a 40,000-square-foot factory could turn out 20 million minitubers in a year. Quantum Tubers is excellent for growing "normal" potatoes as well as genetically modified ones. (These are the ones used for the vaccines.)
         So we can expect a small starchy revolution. Not only healthier, better food, but painless and tasty (let's hope) vaccines. Not bad for small potatoes.
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BUSINESS PAGES in Issue 39 - July 99