|
Title:
|
Biofortification of plants with altered antioxidant content and composition: genetic engineering strategies
|
|
Author:
|
Changfu, Zhu; Sanahuja Solsona, Georgina; Yuan, Dawei; Farré Martinez, Gemma; Arjó Pont, Gemma; Berman Quintana, Judit; Zorrilla López, Uxue; Banakar, Raviraj; Bai, Chao; Pérez Massot, Eduard; Bassie Rene, Ludovic; Capell Capell, Teresa; Christou, Paul
|
|
Notes:
|
Antioxidants are protective molecules that neutralize reactive oxygen species and prevent
oxidative damage to cellular components such as membranes, proteins and nucleic acids,
therefore reducing the rate of cell death and hence the effects of ageing and ageing-related
diseases. The fortification of food with antioxidants represents an overlap between two diverse
environments, namely fortification of staple foods with essential nutrients that happen to have
antioxidant properties (e.g. vitamins C and E) and the fortification of luxury foods with healthpromoting
but non-essential antioxidants such as flavonoids as part of the nutraceuticals/
functional foods industry. Although processed foods can be artificially fortified with vitamins,
minerals and nutraceuticals, a more sustainable approach is to introduce the traits for such
health-promoting compounds at source, an approach known as biofortification. Regardless of
the target compound, the same challenges arise when considering the biofortification of plants
with antioxidants, that is the need to modulate endogenous metabolic pathways to increase the
production of specific antioxidants without affecting plant growth and development and
without collateral effects on other metabolic pathways. These challenges become even more
intricate as we move from the engineering of individual pathways to several pathways
simultaneously. In this review, we consider the state of the art in antioxidant biofortification and
discuss the challenges that remain to be overcome in the development of nutritionally complete
and health-promoting functional foods.
Research at the Universitat de Lleida is supported by MICINN, Spain (BFU2007-61413; BIO2011-23324; BIO02011-22525; PIM2010PKB-00746); Acciones complementarias, BIO2007- 30738-E, BIO2011-22525, MICINN, Spain; European Union Framework 7 Program-SmartCell Integrated Project 222716; European Union Framework 7 European Research Council IDEAS Advanced Grant (to PC) Program-BIOFORCE; COST Action FA0804: Molecular farming: plants as a production platform for high value proteins; Centre CONSOLIDER on Agrigenomics funded by MICINN, Spain. |
|
Subject(s):
|
-Biofortification
-Antioxidants
-Genetic engineering |
|
Rights:
|
(c) Changfu et al., Society for Experimental Biology, Association of Applied Biologists and Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013
|
|
Document type:
|
article
publishedVersion |
|
Published by:
|
Wiley Open Access
|
|
Share:
|
|
