By Marvyn N. Benaning
MANILA, Philippines - The Golden Rice strain being developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) got a big boost when the scientists who developed the beta-carotene enriched cereal donated the genetic materials to different materials.
Dr. Ingo Potrykus and Dr. Peter Beyer developed Golden Rice in 2000 and teamed up with Syngenta in producing a newer version with higher levels of beta-carotene for propagation in countries with high vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among children and lactating mothers.
In turn, Potrykus and Beyer, along with Syngenta, released all intellectual property rights to the public sector through the Golden Rice Network (GRN), which counts the Philippines as a member.
"Golden Rice technology is based on a simple principle. Rice plants accumulate beta-carotene in their leaves but not in the grains. Through modern biotechnology, two carotenoid genes (Phytoene synthase and Phytoenedesaturase) were added to the rice plants allowing beta-carotene to accumulate in the endosperm, the edible part of the grain," PhilRice said.
PhilRice is working on popular rice varieties to develop Golden Rice, including PSB Rc82 (Penaranda) and hopes all regulatory requirements could be hurdled for the rice variety to be ready for commercialization by 2013.
Golden Rice does not produce vitamin A since it is the body that processes the beta-carotene and converts it into a nutrient, PhilRice stressed.
Researchers working on the biotech crop say that the body converts 25 percent of the beta-carotene in Golden Rice to vitamin A, a rate that is much higher than the conversion rate for green, leafy vegetables.
Rice is the staple food of three billion people worldwide and it provides between 50 percent and 80 percent of the total caloric intake of Asians on a daily basis.
Promoting Golden Rice is significant since it has been estimated that 670,000 children die annually because of VAD while 350,000 of them go blind.
The World Health Organization estimates that 190 million children and 19 million pregnant women have been affected by VAD. More than 90 million children in Southeast Asia suffer from VAD, the biggest incidence in any region worldwide.
In the Philippines, about four out of 10 children aged six months to five years and three out of 10 school-aged children suffer from VAD. One of every five pregnant women and one out of five lactating mothers have VAD.
Copyright 2011. Manila Bulletin.
