Australian Researchers Develop Rice With High Iron Content

Scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) have produced rice with up to four times more iron than conventional rice – enough to meet daily recommended requirements for iron intake. The rice also has doubled zinc levels.

"Rice is the primary source of food for roughly half of the world's population, particularly in developing countries, yet the polished grain, also known as white rice, contains insufficient concentrations of iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements," said Dr. Alex Johnson from ACPFG. "A lack of genetic variation in rice has hindered efforts by conventional breeding programs to address iron levels. These programs have not been able to achieve the level of iron and zinc in the rice grain that we are able to achieve with a biotech approach in our glasshouse experiments," Johnson added.

Funded by the Australian Research Council and HarvestPlus, work is now underway to test this technology in field trials.

A research article is available in the journal PLoS ONE which can be accessed at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024476. See an article from ACPFG at http://www.acpfg.com.au/uploads/documents/news/ACPFG%20Iron%20Rice%20Media%20Release%20Final.pdf.