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Basic to applied
New research project takes Steve Rodermel on a more applied route
- "This can happen only in a place like Iowa State."
That's the opinion of Steve Rodermel, professor of genetics, development
and cell biology.
Only at Iowa State could Rodermel join forces with other researchers across
campus to address vitamin A deficiency.
"This project is very interdisciplinary in nature," he said.
Rodermel, who is the project's director; Wendy White, associate professor
of human nutrition; and Kan Wang, associate professor of agronomy and director
of the Center for Plant Transformation and Gene Expression, are working
together to help develop corn with enhanced beta-carotene. That's the substance
that human bodies convert into vitamin A.
The researchers also will conduct studies to determine how much beta-carotene
is absorbed and converted into vitamin A to meet daily requirements. Vitamin
A deficiency is one of the most serious causes of malnutrition in developing
countries and can cause blindness, poor immune function and even premature
death.
Rodermel and his collaborators will generate corn with high beta-carotene
content. White will use highly sensitive analytical tools to measure in
humans the actual vitamin A value of the beta-carotene-enriched corn.
"This is an incredibly exciting project," Rodermel said, "especially
since we're attempting to help reduce malnutrition and hunger."
The Iowa State researchers have received a $1.6 million, three-year grant
from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). They are part
of HarvestPlus, a global research initiative to breed and disseminate crops
that can fight malnutrition in developing nations.
HarvestPlus is an interdisciplinary alliance of international and national
agricultural research institutes, university nutrition and food crop programs,
the private sector and nongovernmental organizations in the developing and
developed world.
Other partners on this project are the International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center, Mexico; the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria;
the University of Illinois; and Wageningen University in The Netherlands.
Monsanto Company in St. Louis is also a partner.
For Rodermel, the project reflects a change in his research philosophy and
a return to a plant he studied for his Ph.D.
"When I first came to Iowa State I was primarily interested in basic
science and didn't appreciate much of the 'applied' research that was taking
place at Iowa State," Rodermel said. "Now I'm totally amazed that
I'm doing something that is both basic and applied in nature."
This vitamin A project also allows Rodermel to turn his research focus back
to corn. He says as a graduate student, he utilized maize as his model system
for studies of photosynthesis and gene regulation.
Once at Iowa State, however, he switched to Arabidopsis, a mustard plant.
"Arabidopsis is a good model for some of the questions I was asking,"
Rodermel said.
In the end, it doesn’'t matter what plant Rodermel utilizes for his
research.
"I'm driven by the problem," he said. “"The organism
doesn't matter much to me. It just happens that for this particular project
that maize is a staple product and most of the world uses maize as a major
form of nutrition."
Rodermel has been working on this particular project for the past two years.
But he sees long-term possibilities for the work.
"I will probably finish my career with this project," he said.
"We're at the beginning stages of making transgenic maize with elevated
beta-carotene, and we're just commencing to understand how to manipulate
the carotenoid biochemical pathway in plants.
"We anticipate that our goals will be achieved by combining both conventional
breeding and biotechnology."
Around LAS
December 1-21, 2003
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