What is the science behind Golden Rice?
Golden rice is a genetically engineered variety of rice (Oryza sativa). It has been modified by inserting a gene from maize and a gene from bacteria found in soil which allows the plant to biosynthesise beta-carotene in the edible parts of rice.
How does Golden Rice work?
The Golden Rice program’s objective is, following consumption, to increase circulating vitamin A levels in the blood to counteract vitamin A deficiency, thereby boosting immunity to common diseases and significantly reducing childhood blindness, of which vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause.
What is Golden Rice and why was it created?
Golden Rice is any variety of rice which makes beta-carotene, thus giving the rice a yellow (Golden) colour. It was created as an additional intervention for vitamin A deficiency.
How Golden Rice is genetically engineered?
The whole beta-carotene biosynthesis pathway (2 daffodil genes and 1 bacterium gene) was engineered with into rice endosperm to convert the GGPP to beta-carotene. The product, Golden Rice, yields 1.6 – 2.0 μg beta-carotene/g of dry rice (2). The body converts beta-carotene into Vitamin A, which is toxic at high levels.
Who is father of Golden Rice?
researcher Ingo Potrykus
The magazine showed the father of Golden Rice, Swiss plant researcher Ingo Potrykus, touting it as “rice that could save a million lives a year”.
What are the disadvantages of Golden Rice?
However, there are also disadvantages….Golden rice
- beta carotene levels in golden rice may not be high enough to make a difference.
- there are fears that it will cross-breed with and contaminate wild rice.
- there are concerns that food from GM plants might harm people.
- seed for GM plants can be expensive.
Why was Golden Rice banned?
This followed a 2016 decision where the FDA had ruled that the beta-carotene content in golden rice did not provide sufficient amounts of vitamin A for US markets.
What is wrong with Golden Rice?
The rice is a beta carotene-enriched crop that is intended to reduce Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), a health problem in very poor areas. But a new study finds that most families at risk for VAD can’t grow Golden Rice themselves, and most commercial farmers won’t grow it either.
What are the pros of Golden Rice?
“Golden Rice” is a variety of rice engineered to produce beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) to help combat vitamin A deficiency, and it has been predicted that its contribution to alleviating vitamin A deficiency would be substantially improved through even higher beta-carotene content.
Is Golden Rice Safe?
Summary: Heralded as a genetically modified crop with the potential to save millions of lives, Golden Rice has just been approved as safe for human and animal consumption by regulators in the Philippines.
Who is the father of Golden Rice?
Why is golden rice banned?
Why is golden rice considered a transgenic crop?
Golden Rice (GR) is a much-debated transgenic crop. Many commentaries and economic analyses have assumed that, if and when the new GR varieties are released, the grains will automatically find their way onto the plates of children in especially poor families who are at risk of vitamin A deficiency (VAD).
What makes golden rice different from normal rice?
Golden Rice is a technology that intersects scientific and ethical debates that extend beyond a grain of rice. Golden Rice is named for its golden color, which is caused by beta-carotene. Normal rice, Oryza sativa, does not express beta-carotene in its endosperm—the starchy and biggest part of the rice seed, which is usually an off-white color.
When was golden rice first published in science?
The scientific details of the rice were first published in Science in 2000, the product of an eight-year project by Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg.
How is golden rice based on metabolic engineering?
Metabolic engineering. Golden Rice technology is based on the simple principle that rice plants possess the whole machinery to synthesise β-carotene, and while this machinery is fully active in leaves, parts of it are turned off in the grain.