Researchers from Tokyo University of Agriculture, Hiroshima University, and Kewpie Corporation have confirmed that chicken eggs that have been genome-edited to lack the egg allergen ovomucoid exhibit basic properties and processing characteristics that are almost identical to those of normal eggs.
Chicken eggs are the main cause of immediate-type food allergies in children, and this has become a global issue. Among chicken egg allergens, ovomucoid has extremely high heat stability and maintains its allergenicity even after heating and other processing, and it is difficult to completely remove it while maintaining its processing characteristics. For this reason, in a previous study, chickens in which the ovomucoid gene was knocked out were produced by genome editing. It has been confirmed that eggs produced by ovomucoid-deficient chickens (ON eggs) do not contain ovomucoid.
In this study, we investigated the basic properties, protein composition, and processing characteristics of ON eggs, and examined the impact of ovomucoid deficiency on egg quality. It was shown that the basic properties (appearance, pH, protein, solid content, etc.) of ON eggs were roughly equivalent to those of normal eggs. It was found that the egg white protein of ON eggs had increased amounts of other major proteins, compensating for the deficiency of ovomucoid.
Regarding the gelling properties of egg white, an increase in gel hardness was observed, but no other significant differences were noted. There were also no significant differences in the foaming and emulsifying properties of egg white (properties of whole egg mayonnaise). In other words, it was confirmed that the change in the protein composition of ON eggs was limited, and that they have sufficient processing properties that are almost equivalent to those of regular eggs.
The research group aims to commercialize ON eggs as "allergy-reducing eggs," and plans to continue to confirm the quality of eggs produced from increased numbers of chickens and breeds. This result offers new options for people with egg allergies, and presents new knowledge about genome-edited foods.
Paper information:【Food Bioscience】Ovomucoid-null eggs produced via genome-editing technology: Protein composition and physicochemical properties