A group of researchers from ETH Zürich led by Navreet Bhullar and her PhD
student Simrat Pal Singh have succeeded in genetically modifying a new rice
variety that not only has increased levels of the micronutrients iron and
zinc in the grains, but also produces beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin
A.

The group's success was the engineering of a gene cassette containing four
genes for the micronutrient improvement that could be inserted into the rice
genome as a single genetic locus. This allows the iron, zinc, and
beta-carotene levels to be simultaneously increased by genetic crosses in
rice varieties from different countries, instead of crossing rice lines with
the individual micronutrients to reach their improved content in rice
grains.

The new multi-nutrient rice lines are still being tested in the greenhouse
and analyzed for their micronutrient content. Bhullar hopes that the new
rice lines will be tested in the field next year.

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