09.01.2025, 18:00 - 19:30

Increasing Minerals and Vitamins in Rice Grains for Human Health

Projections show that the world population will grow to more than 9 billion people by 2050. Goals 2 and 3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals embrace the provision of sufficient and nutritious food for the growing population to promote human health and wellbeing. Major crops such as cassava, maize, potato, rice, and wheat are rich in starch and together they provide more than 60% of the carbohydrate calories consumed worldwide, but they have a poor micronutrient content. People for whom these crops are the primary staple food receive enough calories, but they are often malnourished because these staple foods do not contain enough of the necessary vitamins and minerals such as iron for a healthy diet. To date, 1.6 billion people worldwide suffer reduced productive capacity due to iron-deficiency anemia. Achieving higher micronutrient content for health and nutrition is often not possible with available breeding germplasm, especially in rice. We are employing genetic engineering and genome editing strategies to increase the iron and vitamin content of polished rice grains for improving human health. For example, we increased iron and zinc in rice grains to dietary relevant levels, and combined iron and zinc with essential vitamins. Multi-year field trials and feeding experiments with these biofortified rice lines demonstrate that the micronutrient traits are stable and bioavailable.

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