Golden Rice

1
Golden Rice

• Emily Wong
• June.10.2009
• Botany

2
Introduction

• Golden rice is a variety of Oryza sativa rice
  produced from genetic engineering
• Biofortification-noun. The creation of plants
  that make or accumulate micronutrients
• Main purpose is to provide pro-vitamin A to third
  world, developing, countries where malnutrition
  and vitamin A deficiency are common

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Classification of Oryza sativa

• Common Name Asian Rice
• Kingdom Plantae
• Phylum Anthophyta
• Monocot
• Class Commelinids
• Order Poales
• Family Poaceae
• Genus Oryza
• Species O. sativa
• Binomial Nomenclature Oryza sativa

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How to Cultivate Rice

• Warm regions. Moist, loose soil. Minimum 10C
• Sowing. Seeds are sowed in a nursery or
  greenhouse, where specific amounts of sunlight
  and water is given
• Sprouting. Seeds germinate after 2 weeks
• Planting. Seedlings are transplanted to an
  irrigated field where the water is ankle deep
• Weeding. Hand labor or chemicals are used to
  prevent pests and weeds from invasion. Water is
  drained when the plants flower and become mature.
• Harvesting. Separate the grains from the stalks
  by hand, machine, etc.
• Milling. The hull, or outer layering of the rice
  is removed to create polished white rice.
  Otherwise, the grains will become rancid during
  storage, called brown rice

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Why Rice?

• Global staple food. Cultivated for over 10,000
  years
• Rice provides as much as 80 percent or more of
  the daily caloric intake of 3 billion people,
  which is half the worlds population

• Other plants, such as sweet potatoes have
  varieties that are either rich (orange-fleshed)
  or poor (white fleshed) in pro-vitamin A
• Carrots were originally white or purple in the
  1600s. A Dutch horticulturist mutated the carrot
  to produce carotenes to symbolize the color of
  the Dutch Royal House of Orange

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Who Began the Golden Rice Project?

• Started in 1982 by Ingo Potrykus-Professor
  emeritus of the Institute for Plant Sciences
• Peter Beyer-Professor of Centre for Applied
  Biosciences, Uni. Of Freiburg, Germany
• Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swiss
  Federal Institute of Technology, and Syngenta, a
  crop protection company.

• Golden Rice Humanitarian Board-responsible for
  the global development, introduction and free
  distribution of Golden Rice to target countries.

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Effects of Malnutrition

• Symptoms of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) include
  night blindness, increased susceptibility to
  infection and cancer, anemia (lack of red blood
  cells or hemoglobin), deterioration of the eye
  tissue, and cardiovascular disease
• Nearly 9 million children die from malnutrition
  each year. A large proportion of those children
  die from common illnesses that could have been
  avoided through adequate nutrition
• The reduced immune competence increases the
  morbidity and mortality rates of children

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Goals More is What We Aim For

• Mutate rice plants to produce carotenoids, or
  organic pigments, specifically ß-carotene
  (pro-vitamin A) in the endosperm, the edible part
  of the grain
• Make Golden Rice accessible locally, free of
  charge to farmers, who are able to grow, save,
  consume, replant and locally sell Golden Rice

Vitamin A (Retinol)
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How Does It Work?

• The addition of 2 genes in the rice genome will
  complete the biosynthetic pathway
• 1. Phytoene synthase (psy) derived from
  daffodils
• 2. Lycopene cyclase (crt1) from soil bacteria
  Erwinia uredovora
• Produces enzymes and catalysts for the
  biosynthesis of carotenoids (ß-carotene) in the
  endosperm

• Presence of pro-vitamin A gives rice grains a
  yellowish-orange color, thus, the name Golden
  Rice

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Controversy Against Fools Gold

• Health
• May cause allergies or fail to perform desired
  effect
• Supply does not provide a substantial quantity as
  the recommended daily intake
• Environment
• Loss of Biodiversity. May become a gregarious
  weed and endanger the existence of natural rice
  plants
• Genetic contamination of natural, global staple
  foods
• Culture
• Some people prefer to cultivate and eat only
  white rice based on traditional values and
  spiritual beliefs

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Works Cited

• "Cultivating Rice." InDepthInfo Information
  Delivered In-Depth. 2009. 09 June 2009
  lthttp//www.indepthinfo.com/rice/cultivation.htmgt.
  
• "Failures of Golden Rice Greenpeace
  International." Greenpeace Greenpeace USA. 16
  Mar. 2005. 09 June 2009 lthttp//www.greenpeace.org
  /international/news/failures-of-golden-ricegt.
• "Golden Rice is Part of the Solution." Golden
  Rice Project Home Page. 2009. 09 June 2009
  lthttp//www.goldenrice.org/gt.
• Sanday, Peggy R. "Eggi's Village Rice Cycle."
  School of ArtsSciences - University of
  Pennsylvania. 09 June 2009 lthttp//www.sas.upenn.e
  du/psanday/eggiricecycle.htmlgt.