Researchers could create iron-rich cadmium-free crops using a protein that can transport metal,
The findings come in the wake of news of cadmium-tainted rice in China, this crop could be toxic, a Cornell University news release reported.
Iron and cadmium are both found in the soil and can be sucked up by plant-based iron transporter. Pollution in China could have led to a higher concentration of cadmium in the soil, which caused the tainted rice.
Cadmium can damage major organs in humans and lead to the development of cancer, but iron is an essential part of the human diet. About 30 percent of the global population is iron deficient; this is especially prevalent in developing countries.
A research team looked at the protein OPT3 in hopes of finding a way to balance essential nutrients in plants such as Arabidopsis, which are "small plants related to cabbage and mustard that are used as models for studying plant biology," the news release reported.
Researchers did not know OPT3 function in plants in the past, but this new work shows that it transports iron as well as signals iron concentrations. It transports these nutrients from leaf to root and regulates how much of it is taken from the soil.
The protein's function allows the plant to move dangerous cadmium away from the edible parts of the plant such as the seeds in grain.
"One would hope that this transporter can be used to produce iron-fortified rice and other grain crops one day," Olena Vatamaniuk, associate professor of crop and soil sciences, and the paper's senior author, said in the news release. "Our work suggests that manipulation of the expression of OPT3 can provide promising avenues for targeted biofortification strategies directed at increasing iron density, while omitting cadmium, in the edible portions of crops."
