Dr. Alex Johnson from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics has created genetically modified rice together with his colleagues. The product can solve the problem of the shortage of iron and zinc in those parts of the world where people are malnourished.
The created rice contains 4 times more iron and 2 times more zinc than the usual rice. The scientists have deceived the plant to create rice: they forced it to “think” that it lacks iron. As a result, the rice would pick up more iron and store it in the grain.
Traditional cultivation techniques are not able to give even half of the required nutrients. So the researchers had to turn to biotechnology. They used a virus to increase the activity of a gene that naturally occurs in rice. As a result, they managed to get a product with the desired concentration of substances.
Dr. Johnson suggests that it will take about 10 years before this new rice comes to stores.
Source of the image: Photl.
