At the start of this year, the Balk group published the successful characterisation of two iron-accumulating pea mutants – a first for legumes!🫛 The non-transgenic pea lines, known as degenerate leaves (dgl) and bronze (brz), contain 10-40 more iron in leaves than other peas.
The dgl mutant, contains a 15-bp deletion in an iron sensor called BRUTUS. The disruption to iron sensing causes the plant to behave as if it is iron deficient, despite containing a surplus of iron within its vegetative tissue, resulting in iron accumulation far beyond physiological levels. The brz mutant has a small error in an iron transport protein called OPT3.
Consequently, there is a block in iron transport to part of the vascular system, which also leads to a boost of iron uptake to compensate.
HiFeed aims to utilise high-iron varieties to create plant-based, high-iron food products and supplements to tackle iron-deficiency anaemia, which impacts a third of the global population.
Check out the full publication here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tpj.16514
