Department of Plant Production and Forestry Science, ETSEA, University of Lleida-Agrotecnio Center, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain.
Genes Nutr. 2013 Jan;8(1):29-41. doi: 10.1007/s12263-012-0315-5. Epub 2012 Aug 29.
Malnutrition is a prevalent and entrenched global socioeconomic challenge that reflects the combined impact of poverty, poor access to food, inefficient food distribution infrastructure, and an over-reliance on subsistence mono-agriculture. The dependence on staple cereals lacking many essential nutrients means that malnutrition is endemic in developing countries. Most individuals lack diverse diets and are therefore exposed to nutrient deficiencies. Plant biotechnology could play a major role in combating malnutrition through the engineering of nutritionally enhanced crops. In this article, we discuss different approaches that can enhance the nutritional content of staple crops by genetic engineering (GE) as well as the functionality and safety assessments required before nutritionally enhanced GE crops can be deployed in the field. We also consider major constraints that hinder the adoption of GE technology at different levels and suggest policies that could be adopted to accelerate the deployment of nutritionally enhanced GE crops within a multicomponent strategy to combat malnutrition.
营养不良是一个普遍存在且根深蒂固的全球社会经济挑战，反映了贫困、食物获取途径有限、低效的食物分配基础设施以及对自给农业的过度依赖等多种因素的综合影响。对缺乏许多必需营养素的主食谷物的依赖意味着，营养不良在发展中国家普遍存在。大多数人饮食单一，因此容易出现营养缺乏。植物生物技术可以通过对营养增强型作物的工程设计，在对抗营养不良方面发挥重要作用。在本文中，我们讨论了通过基因工程（GE）来提高主食作物营养价值的不同方法，以及在田间部署营养增强型 GE 作物之前所需的功能和安全性评估。我们还考虑了在不同层面上阻碍 GE 技术采用的主要限制因素，并提出了一些可以采用的政策建议，以加速在多组分策略中部署营养增强型 GE 作物，从而对抗营养不良。
