Palmgren, MG; Clemens, S; Williams, LE; Krämer, U; Borg, S; Schiorring, JK; Sanders, D: Zinc biofortification of cereals: problems and solutions., Trends Plant Science, 13, 464-473 (2008), doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2008.06.005 | |
Abstract: The goal of biofortification is to develop plants that have an increased content of bioavailable nutrients in their edible parts. Cereals serve as the main staple food for a large proportion of the world population but have the shortcoming, from a nutrition perspective, of being low in zinc and other essential nutrients. Major bottlenecks in plant biofortification appear to be the root-shoot barrier and - in cereals - the process of grain filling. New findings demonstrate that the root-shoot distribution of zinc is controlled mainly by heavy metal transporting P(1B)-ATPases and the metal tolerance protein (MTP) family. A greater understanding of zinc transport is important to improve crop quality and also to help alleviate accumulation of any toxic metals |