Iron-fortification Of Rice Seeds By Expressing Ferritin Genes Along With Enhancing Iron Absorption And Translocation

Abstract

Iron deficiency is a serious nutritional problem especially in the developing countries of Asia. Therefore producing iron-fortified rice will contribute to ameliorate the iron deficiency problem. We have already expressed ferritin gene in rice seeds using an endosperm-specific promoter and obtained transgenic rice seeds whose iron concentrations were increased up to threefold. However, higher levels of ferritin expression in rice seeds hardly increased iron concentration, possibly due to iron exhaustion in leaves. In this study, we aimed to further increase iron concentration in rice seeds by enhancing iron absorption and transport ability. We introduced soybean ferritin gene SoyferH2 connected to two endosperm-specific promoters, along with barley HvNAS1, HvNAATA, B and IDS3 genes encoding biosynthetic enzymes of mugineic acid family phytosiderophores, using a marker-free vector. We obtained 102 T0 transformants. Patterns of ferritin expression and iron concentrations of T1 seeds will be presented.