Laboratory of Plant Biotechnology, Department of Global Agricultural Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan.
Front Plant Sci. 2013 Feb 8;4:15. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2013.00015. eCollection 2013.
Biofortification (increasing the contents of vitamins and minerals through plant breeding or biotechnology) of food crops with micronutrient elements has the potential to combat widespread micronutrient deficiencies in humans. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) feeds more than half of the world's population and is used as a staple food in many parts of Asia. As in other plants, micronutrient transport in rice is controlled at several stages, including uptake from soil, transport from root to shoot, careful control of subcellular micronutrient transport, and finally, and most importantly, transport to seeds. To enhance micronutrient accumulation in rice seeds, we need to understand and carefully regulate all of these processes. During the last decade, numerous attempts such as increasing the contents/expression of genes encoding metal chelators (mostly phytosiderophores) and metal transporters; Fe storage protein ferritin and phytase were successfully undertaken to significantly increase the micronutrient content of rice. However, despite the rapid progress in biofortification of rice, the commercialization of biofortified crops has not yet been achieved. Here, we briefly review the progress in biofortification of rice with micronutrient elements (Fe, Zn, and Mn) and discuss future prospects to mitigate widespread micronutrient deficiencies in humans.
通过植物育种或生物技术增加食物作物中微量营养元素的含量（生物强化），有可能解决人类普遍存在的微量营养素缺乏问题。水稻（Oryza sativa L.）养活了世界上一半以上的人口，是亚洲许多地区的主食。与其他植物一样，水稻中的微量营养素运输在几个阶段受到控制，包括从土壤中吸收、从根部到茎叶的运输、对亚细胞微量营养素运输的精细控制，最后也是最重要的是，向种子的运输。为了提高水稻种子中微量营养素的积累，我们需要了解并仔细调节所有这些过程。在过去的十年中，人们进行了许多尝试，例如增加编码金属螯合剂（主要是植物铁载体）和金属转运蛋白的基因的含量/表达；铁储存蛋白铁蛋白和植酸酶，以显著提高水稻的微量营养素含量。然而，尽管在水稻生物强化方面取得了快速进展，但生物强化作物尚未实现商业化。在这里，我们简要回顾了用微量营养元素（Fe、Zn 和 Mn）对水稻进行生物强化的进展，并讨论了减轻人类广泛存在的微量营养素缺乏的未来前景。
