A research team from the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular
Biology (IBMCP), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council
(CSIC) and the Universitat Polit?cnica de Val?ncia (UPV), has developed an
innovative method for the biofortification of leaves and other green plant
tissues with increased healthy substances such as beta-carotene, the main
precursor of vitamin A in the human diet.



Beta-carotene is the primary precursor of retinoids, chemical compounds with
essential bodily functions (vision, cell proliferation and differentiation,
and immune system), including vitamin A. Using tobacco plants as a
laboratory model and lettuce as a cultivation model, the team led by Manuel
Rodríguez Concepción, CSIC researcher at the IBMCP, managed to increase the
beta-carotene content in the leaves without negatively affecting other key
processes such as photosynthesis. The study shows that it is possible to
multiply the beta-carotene levels in leaves by creating new places to store
them outside the photosynthetic complexes. The researchers were able to
store high levels of beta-carotene in plastoglobules, the fat storage
vesicles inside chloroplasts.



The study also shows that beta-carotene synthesis in plastoglobules can be
combined with its production outside chloroplasts through biotechnological
approaches. Co-author Pablo Pérez Colao said that beta-carotene accumulates
in vesicles similar to plastoglobules but located in the cytosol. The
combination of both strategies achieved up to a 30-fold increase in
beta-carotene levels compared to untreated leaves. The massive accumulation
of beta-carotene also gave the lettuce leaves a characteristic golden color.
According to the researchers, the discovery that beta-carotene can be
produced and stored at very high levels in a more bioaccessible form outside
the places where it is usually found in leaves 'represents a very
significant advance for improving nutrition through biofortification of
vegetables such as lettuce, chard or spinach without giving up their
characteristic scent and flavor.'



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