A University of Adelaide 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 HarvestPlus 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 Australian Centre for Plant Functional
Genomics at the Waite Campus, 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 amount of iron that is
retained accumulates almost exclusively in the outer layers, which are
removed during the milling process so that grain can be stored for long
periods.

"In the western world we can get around this problem by adding various
compounds to flour to make it rich in iron. But iron fortification of flour
is only economical for developed countries. Poor nations can't afford this
so we have to find a sustainable way of increasing iron in the milled seed."

Higher iron content could also lower the production costs of many Australian
farmers by reducing or eliminating the need for iron fortification of wheat
flour.

Dr Johnson has been awarded $85,000 by the Australian Research Council for
the two-year project and an additional $200,000 by HarvestPlus, an
international non-profit organisation which is working towards alleviating
nutritional deficiencies in the developing world.

The other team members working on the Australian project are Professor Mark
Tester from the University of Adelaide and Associate Professor James
Stangoulis from Flinders University.
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