Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-16-2011

Journal or Book Title

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Volume

59

Issue

24

First Page

12954

Last Page

12962

DOI

10.1021/jf203485a

Abstract

High phytate content in staple food crops is a major barrier to successful iron biofortification. We have exploited the low phytic acid 1-1 (lpa1-1) mutant of maize to generate transgenic plants with up-to 70 μg/g seed iron through the endosperm-specific overexpression of soybean ferritin, resulting in more than 2-fold improvement in iron bioavailability. The levels of bioavailable seed iron achieved in this study greatly exceed any achieved thus far and closely approach values estimated to have a nutritional impact on target populations. Gene expression studies reveal a large induction of the YS1 transporter in leaves and severe repression of an iron acquisition gene DMAS1 in roots, suggesting significant alterations in the iron homeostatic mechanisms in transgenic lpa1-1. Furthermore, preliminary tests show that the high-iron lpa1-1 seeds have higher germination rates and seedling vigor when compared to those of the nontransgenic seeds, which may help improve their value to plant breeders.

Comments

Reprinted with permission from J. Agric. Food Chem., 2011, 59 (24), pp 12954–12962. doi: 10.1021/jf203485a Copyright 2011 American Chemical Society.

Copyright Owner

American Chemical Society

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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