The Green Revolution Strikes Gold

Engineering plants to improve their nutritional value would be of great benefit to developing countries. As [Guerinot][1] explains in a Perspective, half of the world's population consume rice as a staple food, yet rice is devoid of many essential nutrients such as vitamin A and iron. Now [ Ye et al. ][2] report that they have successfully engineered rice plants to produce b-carotene (from which vitamin A is made) in the endosperm of the rice grain. As soon as true-breeding lines of this engineered rice are established, seeds will be freely available to farmers in developing countries. This should help to ameliorate vitamin A deficiency, which is widespread in poor parts of the world. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/287/5451/241 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/287/5451/303