Worldwide mission to solve iron deficiency

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

A University of 新浪彩票 researcher will lead an Australian project to help address the world's biggest nutritional deficiency - lack of iron.

Dr Alex Johnson has been awarded nearly $300,000 to work with the Bill Gates-funded Challenge Program to increase iron content in rice and other cereal grains.

More than two billion people - or 30% of the world's population - suffer from iron deficiency, which can cause anaemia, poor mental development, fertility problems and a depressed immune system.

Dr Johnson, who is based at the at the , will work on increasing iron content in cereal foods by improving the delivery of iron from the leaf to the seed.

"Iron content is quite low in cereal grains because although iron is present in a plant's leaves, very little of that iron is transported to the seed, which is the part that is consumed by humans.

"We know of several proteins that move iron around in a plant so it is a matter of increasing the flow of iron into a seed tissue called endosperm, which survives the milling and polishing process."

If this can be achieved, the benefits to developing countries in particular will be enormous, Dr Johnson says.

Rice and wheat, the two most widely consumed cereals in developing countries, transport only a small fraction of iron to the developing grain - 5% for rice and 20% for wheat. Furthermore, the small am