Improving nutritious rice: the transgenic approach at IRRI
2003
Datta, K. | Baisakh, N. | Vasconcelos, M. de | Torrizo, L. | Abrigo, E. | Oliva, N. | Tan, J. | Meienberger, I. | Senner, A. | Rai, M. | Khalekuzzaman, M. | Rehana, S. | Datta, S.K.
Malnutrition, especially vitamin-A deficiency (VAD) and iron deficiency, is a major problem in South Asia, where rice is the primary food, providing 40-60% of the total calorie intake. Hence, bioengineering rice to produce provitamin A and store high iron in the endosperm tissues is an attractive alternate strategy for alleviating these two severe problems. We at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines have developed transgenics in the background of several tropical rice cultivars suited to Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia that synthesize beta-carotene and have a high iron content in the seed endosperm through the biolistic approach and using either the antibiotic or nonantibiotic selection system. Molecular, biochemical, and histochemical analyses confirmed the stable integration and inheritance of all three genes - psy, crt1, and lcy - for the ß-carotene biosynthesis, ferritin for iron enhancement, and FRO2 for iron uptake. The transgenics showed accumulation of beta-carotene and iron in their seeds.
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