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A golden era—pro-vitamin A enhancement in diverse crops

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Abstract

Numerous crops have been bred or engineered to increase carotenoid levels in an effort to develop novel strategies that address vitamin A deficiency in the developing world. The pioneering work in rice (not covered in this review) has been followed up in many additional crops, some of which are staples like rice whereas others are luxury products whose impact on food security is likely to be marginal. This review surveys the progress that has been made in carotenoid breeding and metabolic engineering, focusing on β-carotene enhancement in crops other than rice. We ask if these efforts have the potential to address vitamin A deficiency in developing countries by comparing bioavailable pro-vitamin A levels in wild type and enhanced crops to determine whether nutritional requirements can be met without the consumption of unrealistic amounts of food. The potential impact of carotenoid enhancement should therefore be judged against benchmarks that include the importance of particular crops in terms of global food security, the amount of bioavailable β-carotene, and the amount of food that must be consumed to achieve the reference daily intake of vitamin A.

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Acknowledgments

Research in our laboratory is supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) Grant BFU2007-61413; European Research Council Advanced Grant BIOFORCE; Center Consolider, MICINN, Spain; COST Action FA0804, Associated Unit CAVA; and the SmartCell, FP7 Integrated Project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Production and Forestry Science, ETSEA, University of Lleida, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain

    Chao Bai, Gemma Farré, Georgina Sanahuja, Paul Christou, Teresa Capell & Changfu Zhu

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Richard M. Twyman

  3. Institució Catalana de Reserca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain

    Paul Christou

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  1. Chao Bai
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  2. Richard M. Twyman
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  3. Gemma Farré
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  4. Georgina Sanahuja
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  5. Paul Christou
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  6. Teresa Capell
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  7. Changfu Zhu
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Correspondence to Changfu Zhu.

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Editor: N. J. Taylor

Chao Bai and Richard M. Twyman contributed equally to this paper

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Bai, C., Twyman, R.M., Farré, G. et al. A golden era—pro-vitamin A enhancement in diverse crops. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Plant 47, 205–221 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-011-9363-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-011-9363-6

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