Award details

Transport and homeostasis of zinc for biofortification

Reference	BBS/E/J/000C0662
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Dale Sanders
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	213,018
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2012
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	59 months

Abstract

Almost one third of the world’s population is thought to be zinc deficient and children are particularly sensitive to deficiency. Some major health problems associated with zinc deficiency include immune system suppression and increased susceptibility to deadly infectious diseases, delays in physical development and impairments in both physical and mental development. One strategy to combat dietary zinc deficiency is biofortification of cereal grains through enhanced zinc accumulation. The endosperm storage tissue dominates the grain and this project aims to increase the levels of zinc in this tissue. Transcriptomics data from cereals suggests that Metal Tolerance Proteins (MTPs) might be responsible for transition metal transport in the grain. The MTPs are members of the large Cation Diffusion Facilitator (CDF) family of transporters that are ubiquitous to all forms of life and which can be subdivide into three clades according to the chief metal transported: zinc, manganese or iron/zinc. A barley CDF transporter, HvMTP1 has been identified that localizes to the plant vacuolar membrane and can functionally complement a yeast zinc transporter-deficient mutant. Barley (cv Golden Promise) has been transformed using HvMTP1 with expression driven by grain-specific promoters that target different parts of the seed, either the endosperm or the aleurone. Several different barley lines have been generated and these are being grown in glasshouse pot experiments to measure if the transformation has resulted in increasing the grain zinc content. The grain will also be analysed to check if the content of other transition metals is changed when compared with control plants.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Diet and Health, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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