Scientists Develop Folate-Fortified Lettuce

Consuming food with high levels of folate is important during periods of rapid cell division and growth, especially during pregnancy. Folate, a water soluble B vitamin, is also required in the production of healthy red blood cells. Folate deficiency results to anencephaly and spina bifida or unclosed neural tube in infants and megaloblastic anemia in adults. Numerous studies have shown that supplement of folic acid led to significant reduction in the incidence of neural tube defects, stroke and some childhood cancers.

Although plants and microorganisms are able to synthesize folates, animals lack a complete folate synthesis pathway. Humans need to consume some 400 µg/day of the vitamin, mostly from plant sources. Folic acid biofortification in staple crops and vegetables may prove to be an effective solution in combating folate deficiency especially in developing countries.

A group of researchers from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and the University of Brasilia developed several lettuce lines accumulating high levels of folate. The lettuce plants express a synthetic gchI gene, based on a native chicken gene, which encodes an enzyme that plays a central role in the folate biosynthetic pathway. The GM lettuce lines contain 2-8 times higher folate levels than the non-transgenic lines. According to the researchers, the folate content in enriched lettuce would provide 26% of the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for an adult, in a regular serving.

The paper published by Transgenic Research is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11248-009-9256-1