792 million people are malnourished (2000)

10 million children die of malnutrition every year

2-3 million die because of VAD, 500.000 get blind

400 million poor consume mainly rice

Vitamin A importance

Vision Epithelial growth and

repair Bone growth Reproduction and

embryonic development

Maintenance of the surface linings of the eyes

Epithelial integrity of respiratory, urinary and intestinal tracts

Regulation of adult genes

Immune response

Vitamin A productionJust middle part missing in endosperm: Phytoene Synthase, Phytoene Desaturase, Zeta-Carotene Desaturase

The construct

A lot of work has been done since the intitial idea...

The “best“ construct: GR II Endosperm-specific promotor Glutelin-promotor Gt1p transit peptide tp to target plastid Nos-Terminator , terminating synthesis (nopaline synthase) carotene-desaturase from Erwinia uredovora crtI,

catalyzing mutiple steps in carotenoid synthesis Zea mays phytoene synthase Maize ubiquitin-promotor ubi1p phosphomannose-isomerase marker-System „Positech“,

avoiding antibiotic-marker RB and LB: RB, T-DNA right/left border sequence

The new Golden Rice

Golden Rice up to 37 µg/g carotenoid of which 31 µg/g is β-carotene (first generation Golden Rice 1.6 µg/g )

$3.00 - 19.40 daly (costs to save one life) – from $200 cost-effective (World bank)

India: 5,000-40,000 children could be saved per year – every 14minutes one life

Criticism

Golden Rice could contaminate wild rice forever

better answers to theproblem of VAD

Encourages diet based on one food Designed to help introducing GMOs Unknown side-effects Bioavailability, storage effects

Micronutrients and Bioavailablity

Micronutrientscan enhance soil quality

Various factorsdetermine availablity

A lot of breeding-potential

Status and Outlook

Introduction to the Philippines by 2012, then Bangladesh

Yield: about 5t - low? Storage – depends on traits Conversion factor – first experiments successfull

GR with additional nutritional traits:vitamin E, iron and zinc, high-quality protein or essential amino acids

Personalized medicine

Trend of the future: personalized diets for problematic SNPs

Nutrigenomics: Interaction of dietary components and resulting proteonomic and metabolomic changes

Nutrigenetics: Understanding Gene-based differences in response to dietary components

What should be done

Spread biofortified foodto Africa

Adopt regulatory process

Shift public opinion

Focus research and

agriculture lesser on profits

Establish not only bio, but also quality

Sources

All Slides: Salim Al-Babili and Peter Beyer, „Golden Rice – five years on the road – five years to go?“, Review: Trends in Plant Science, Vol. 10 No. 12 December 2005Roukayatou Zimmermann, Matin Qaim: „Potential health benefits of Golden Rice – a Philippine case study“ – Food policy 29 (2004)Ross M. Welch, Robin D. Graham: „Breeding for micronutrients in staple food crops from a human nutrition perspective“, Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 55, No. 396Peter Bayer et al.: „Golden Rice: Indroducing the β-Carotene Biosynthesis Pathway into Rice Endosperm by Genetic Engineering to Defeat Vitamin A Defiency“, Symposium The Journal of Nutrition, 2002 American Society for Nutritional ScienceThe Golden Rice project – www.goldenrice.org

Slide 3: http://www.cehjournal.org/extra/40_15_01.html , Photos: Simon Franken, Allen Foster, Donald McLaren & Gordon Johnson Alfred Sommer (ophthalmologist) http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/sommer_vitA.html

Slide 7: DER SPIEGEL 48/2008 http://www.spiegel.de/media/0,4906,19439,00.pdf„Kampagne für gentechnisch veränderten Reis am Scheideweg“ Christoph Then, www.scouting-biotechnology.net, Januar 2009, im Auftrag von foodwatch e. V. http://www.foodwatch.de/e10/e1026/e19431/e23453/GoldenRice_deutsch_final_ger.pdf„All that glitters is not Gold: The false hope of Golden Rice“, Greenpeace, May 2005, http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/all-that-glitters-is-not-gold.pdf

Slide 8: www.greenpeace.org

Slide 9: http://www.goldenrice.org/Content3-Why/why3_FAQ.html

Slide 11: Rahul Shetty MD, http://open.medicdrive.org/blog/2007/09/26/surfing-the-waves-of-medicine-two-point-oh/

Slide 12: Google Earth, Terrametrics, DigitalGlobeUndata, www.thematicmapping.org