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A sustainable solution for dietary iron deficiency through plant biotechnology and breeding to increase seed ferritin
E C Theil1, J W Burton, J L Beard
1Department of Biochemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27696-7622, USA.
Objectives:
To stimulate novel sustainable solutions to the problem of the nutritional iron deficiency, we asked: How does Nature insure proper iron nutrition of embryos and neonatal animals? Estimates of iron deficiency world-wide are 30% of the population, with women and children at the greatest risk. Recent studies linking iron deficiency with impeded cognitive development emphasizes the enormity of the impact of iron deficiency. Sustainable solutions to the problem of dietary iron deficiency have been elusive.
Results:
Data for storage iron was examined in seeds, developing plants, embryos and developing animals. In all cases, the common source of stored iron for development was ferritin. The protein component of ferritin concentrates iron billions of times above the solubility of the free metal ion. High conservation of ferritin sequences in bacteria, plants and animals and the specificity of ferritin bioavailability either added extrinsically or intrinsically enriched in a selected soybean cultivar, showed high efficacy in curing dietary iron deficiency in the rat model. Older data on ferritin were reevaluated in light of contemporary knowledge.
Conclusions:
Enhancement of natural seed ferritin content by biotechnology and breeding has the potential for a sustainable solution to the problem of global dietary iron deficiency.