在过去的五十年中,用氮(N)对谷物作物的施肥有所增加。特别是,从1961年到2010年,小麦作物的施肥增加了近一个数量级,从9.84增加到93.8kgNha-1y-1。我们假设氮肥的这种强化会增加小麦中过敏原蛋白的含量,这可能与人类乳糜泻病理的增加有关。人均麦醇溶蛋白摄入量的增加,主要负责乳糜泻发展的谷蛋白组,将是负责任的因素。我们对支持我们假设的可用报告进行了全球荟萃分析:在接受较高剂量氮肥的土壤中生长的小麦植物具有较高的总面筋,总醇溶蛋白,α/β-麦醇溶蛋白,谷粒中γ-麦醇溶蛋白和ω-麦醇溶蛋白含量和较高的麦醇溶蛋白转录。此后,我们计算了小麦和衍生食品中麦醇溶蛋白的人均年平均摄入量,发现从1961年到2010年,人均y-1从大约2.4千克增加到3.8千克(人均y-1+1.4±0.18千克,平均值±SE),即,增加58±7.5%。最后,我们发现,在所有可用的乳糜泻时序研究中,这种增加与乳糜泻发病率的增加呈正相关。在环境尺度上观察到了过度施肥的影响和损害(例如,富营养化和酸雨),但是,过度受精对人类健康(乳糜泻)的潜在直接影响也是可能的。
Fertilisation of cereal crops with nitrogen (N) has increased in the last five decades. In particular, the fertilisation of wheat crops increased by nearly one order of magnitude from 1961 to 2010, from 9.84 to 93.8 kg N ha-1 y-1. We hypothesized that this intensification of N fertilisation would increase the content of allergenic proteins in wheat which could likely be associated with the increased pathology of coeliac disease in human populations. An increase in the per capita intake of gliadin proteins, the group of gluten proteins principally responsible for the development of coeliac disease, would be the responsible factor. We conducted a global meta-analysis of available reports that supported our hypothesis: wheat plants growing in soils receiving higher doses of N fertilizer have higher total gluten, total gliadin, α/β-gliadin, γ-gliadin and ω-gliadin contents and higher gliadin transcription in their grain. We thereafter calculated the per capita annual average intake of gliadins from wheat and derived foods and found that it increased from 1961 to 2010 from approximately 2.4 to 3.8 kg y-1 per capita (+1.4 ± 0.18 kg y-1 per capita, mean ± SE), i.e., increased by 58 ± 7.5%. Finally, we found that this increase was positively correlated with the increase in the rates of coeliac disease in all the available studies with temporal series of coeliac disease. The impacts and damage of over-fertilisation have been observed at an environmental scale (e.g., eutrophication and acid rain), but a potential direct effect of over-fertilisation is thus also possible on human health (coeliac disease).