Chronicle Online e-News
CU researchers' discovery of what makes some cauliflower orange could
lead to more nutritious staple crops
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June07/orangeCau
liflower.kr.html
June 1, 2007
By Krishna Ramanujan
ksr32@cornell.edu
While orange cauliflower may seem unappealing to some, it has
distinct nutritional advantages. Now, Cornell researchers have
identified the genetic mutation behind the unusual hue. The finding
may lead to more nutritious staple crops, including maize, potato,
rice, sorghum and wheat.
The genetic mutation recently isolated by Cornell plant geneticist Li
Li and colleagues -- and described in the December issue of The Plant
Cell -- allows the vegetable to hold more beta-carotene, which causes
the orange color and is a precursor to the essential nutrient vitamin
A. While cauliflower and many staple crops have the ability to
synthesize beta-carotene, they are limited partially because they
lack a "metabolic sink," or a place to store the compound.
Developing staple crops with more vitamin A is important because
vitamin A deficiency, common in developing countries, leads to
compromised immune systems and is the leading cause of blindness in
children.
"A large percentage of the human population depends on staple crops
for nutrition," said Li, an adjunct assistant professor in the
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics and a scientist at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture -- Agricultural Research Service's U.S.
Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory at Cornell. "The research
provides a possible new technique for genetically modifying staple
crops to increase their ability to store beta-carotene and increase
nutritional content in staple crops."
Other researchers have created "golden rice" by inserting several
genes that increases the synthesis of beta-carotene. But this
technique has proved less effective in many plants. Li's research,
which increases a plant's ability to store beta-carotene, may offer
an alternate and complementary technique for making staple crops more
nutritious.
Li, in collaboration with Joyce Van Eck from the Boyce Thompson
Institute for Plant Research at Cornell, is currently working on
transgenic potatoes, altering genes to increase both the metabolic
sink and beta-carotene synthesis.
Orange cauliflower was first discovered in a farmer's white
cauliflower field in Canada about 30 years ago and is now available
at supermarkets.
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