Corn Tidbits: Biotech Produces Golden Rice

Harvesting corn silage in Pennsylvania

Greg Roth
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Penn State
March 2000

In the January 14, 2000 edition of Science magazine, a report by X. Ye et and others described the development of rice plants using biotechnology that accumulate Beta carotene (Vitamin A) in the grain. This development of "golden rice" is significant because more than half of the world's population eat rice daily and rice is a poor source of many minerals and vitamins. In Southeast Asia, for example, approximately 70% of the children under five suffer from vitamin A deficiency. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) predicts that improved vitamin A could prevent 1 to 2 million child death each year. The rice was developed by inserting three genes that encode for three different enzymes that are necessary for the biosynthesis of Beta-Carotene in the endosperm. Variety development and field testing remain to be completed but if the testing is successful, this could be a major development similar to the Green Revolution. The Rockefeller Foundation, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the European Community Biotech Program funded this work. Since these are public sources of funding, the rice should be freely available to farmers who need it most. If this program is successful, it will be a major boost to the proponents of biotechnology, because it demonstrates the potential of the technology to address consumer problems, even for the less developed countries.