GoldenRiceTM - a success story

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GoldenRiceTM - a success story
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Vitamin A deficiency in developing countries

• Lack of vitamin A is the leading cause of
  blindness among children in developing countries
• 250,000 children per year go blind
• 124 million children worldwide are deficient in
  vitamin A
• Oral delivery is difficult because of lack of
  infrastructure

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GoldenRice

• Rice is a major staple food in Asia
• The outer oil-rich, nutritious aleurone layer is
  usually milled because it turns rancid upon
  storage in tropical areas
• The remaining endosperm lacks provitamin A (b
  carotene)

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b-carotene biosynthetic pathway

• The problem with rice
• Does not express phytoene synthase in endosperm
• Does not express phytoene desaturase or
  z-carotene desaturase

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The solution

• Ingo Potrykus and colleagues engineered rice to
  contain genes for two enzymes
• phytoene synthase from daffodil
• carotene desaturase from Erwinia
• The resulting rice endosperm can yield 100 mg
  retinol equivalent / 300 g rice
• 1.3 µg b-carotene / g rice
• U.S. RDA for 1- to 3-year-old children is 300 µg

Ye et al. (2000) Science 287 303-309
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Whats new?

• Golden Rice does not meet the minimum RDA for
  vitamin A
• New version--Golden Rice 2--has been made by
  adding the maize phytoene synthase gene

Paine et al., 2005. Nature Biotechnology 23482.
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Golden Rice 2

• Supplies 50 of the 300 µg vitamin A RDA in 72 g
  of dry rice
• Typical childs portion of rice is 60 g
• This amount of rice is eaten twice a day in many
  countries

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Whats next?

• Use traditional breeding to introduce the
  b-carotene production into strains of rice that
  grow well in developing countries
• India
• China
• Africa
• Latin America
• Overcome the GMO opposition

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Overcoming the GMO opposition

• Golden rice fulfills the wishes of the GMO
  opposition
• It was not developed by industry, and industry
  does not benefit from it
• It presents a sustainable, cost-free solution,
  not requiring other resources
• It is given free of charge and it benefits the
  poor and disadvantaged
• It does not create new dependencies on, or
  advantages for, rich landowners
• It can be resown every year from saved seed
• It does not reduce agricultural or natural
  biodiversity
• It does not present any negative impact on the
  environment or risk to human health

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Golden Rice is a success