research on golden rice

Golden Rice

• Nutrition & Food Security

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and its national research partners have developed Golden Rice to complement existing interventions to address vitamin A deficiency (VAD). VAD is a serious public health problem affecting millions of children and pregnant women globally.

In South and Southeast Asian countries, where at least half of daily caloric intake is obtained from rice, Golden Rice can help in the fight against VAD, particularly among the people who depend mostly on rice for nourishment.

Golden Rice is intended to be used in combination with existing approaches to overcome VAD, including eating foods that are naturally high in vitamin A or beta-carotene, eating foods fortified with vitamin A, taking vitamin A supplements, and optimal breastfeeding practices.

Golden Rice has been assessed to be as safe as ordinary rice with the added benefit of beta-carotene in the grains by  Food Standards Australia New Zealand (22 February 2018) , Health Canada (16 March 2018) , the  United States Food and Drug Administration (24 May 2018)  and Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry (19 December 2019) .

In July 2021, the Philippines became the first country in the world to approve Golden Rice for commercial propagation .

Updates on the Golden Rice Project

As of 2022, Golden Rice has begun pilot-scale deployment in the Philippines. It is still under regulatory review in Bangladesh.

Biosafety approval is a prerequisite for inclusion in the rice variety listing of the National Seed Board (NSB) of Bangladesh.  To complete the biosafety review process, the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) lodged an application to the National Technical Committee on Crop Biotechnology (NTCCB) at the Ministry of Agriculture on November 26, 2017, who forwarded the application to the National Committee on Biosafety (NCB) at the Ministry of Environment on December 4, 2017.

PHILIPPINES

DA-PhilRice is leading pilot deployment in the Philippines , with the first batch of Golden Rice seeds distributed for planting in selected provinces during the 2022 wet season planting. Golden Rice is registered with the National Seed Industry Council as NSIC 2022 Rc682GR2E, or Malusog 1, hence the naming shift from Golden Rice to Malusog Rice in the country.

Golden Rice was assessed through the Joint Department Circular (JDC) No. 1 series of 2016 , which comprises three regulatory review processes: for direct use as food and feed, or for processing (FFP); for field trial; and for commercial propagation. Regulatory applications assessed through this process underwent approval through five different government agencies – the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Health (DOH), and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-- as well as by a panel of independent scientific, socio-cultural, and economic experts.

The biosafety permit for the commercial propagation of GR2E Golden Rice was issued by the DA-BPI on 21 July 2021.

On 18 December 2019, the FFP permit was issued by the DA-BPI, approving GR2E Golden Rice for direct use as food and feed, or for processing in the Philippines.

The biosafety permit for field trial was released by DA-BPI on 20 May 2019. The field trial--conducted in DA-PhilRice stations in Munoz, Nueva Ecija, and San Mateo,Isabela--was completed in October 2019.

IRRI’s work with Golden Rice

IRRI works with its national research partners to develop Golden Rice as a complementary food-based approach to improve vitamin A status, using popular local inbred varieties from each country. IRRI’s work will support and strengthen the:

Development of Golden Rice varieties suitable for smallholder farmers in partner countries Breeders at the Philippine Department of Agriculture - Philippine Rice Research Institute ( DA-PhilRice ), the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute ( BRRI ), and the Indonesian Center for Rice Research ( ICRR ) are developing Golden Rice versions of existing rice varieties that are popular with their local farmers, retaining the same yield, pest resistance, and grain qualities. Golden Rice seeds are expected to cost farmers the same as other rice varieties. Once PhilRice, BRRI, and ICRR are able to secure an approval from their respective regulatory agencies, cooking and taste tests will be done to make sure that Golden Rice meets consumers' needs.

Safety assessment of Golden Rice The environmental safety of Golden Rice is assessed through field tests and other evaluations in each partner country. Golden Rice is analyzed according to internationally accepted guidelines for food safety.

Research and development of Golden Rice adhere to scientific principles developed over the last 20 years by international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) , the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission . These are the same principles that inform the safety assessments of national regulatory agencies, such as FSANZ, Health Canada, and the US FDA, which have already assessed Golden Rice as safe to plant and safe to eat.

Nutrition evaluation by an independent organization After obtaining the necessary permits and approvals, an independent community nutrition study will be conducted to evaluate the contribution of Golden Rice to Vitamin A status of target communities.

Deployment of Golden Rice in priority areas IRRI supports its national partners in developing pilot-scale deployment strategies to ensure that Golden Rice reaches the farmers and consumers that need it the most. A sustainable delivery program co-designed by IRRI and its national counterparts will also be implemented to ensure that Golden Rice is affordable, acceptable, and accessible in vitamin A deficient communities.

For more information on Golden Rice, visit the Golden Rice FAQs .

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• Open access
• Published: 28 January 2021

Development and characterization of GR2E Golden rice introgression lines

• B. P. Mallikarjuna Swamy 1 ,
• Severino Marundan Jr. 1 ,
• Mercy Samia 1 ,
• Reynante L. Ordonio 2 ,
• Democrito B. Rebong 2 ,
• Ronalyn Miranda 2 ,
• Anielyn Alibuyog 2 ,
• Anna Theresa Rebong 2 ,
• Ma. Angela Tabil 2 ,
• Roel R. Suralta 2 ,
• Antonio A. Alfonso 2 ,
• Partha Sarathi Biswas 3 ,
• Md. Abdul Kader 3 ,
• Russell F. Reinke 1 ,
• Raul Boncodin 1 &
• Donald J. MacKenzie 4  

Scientific Reports volume  11 , Article number:  2496 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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• Biotechnology
• Plant sciences

Golden Rice with β-carotene in the grain helps to address the problem of vitamin A deficiency. Prior to commercialize Golden Rice, several performance and regulatory checkpoints must be achieved. We report results of marker assisted backcross breeding of the GR2E trait into three popular rice varieties followed by a series of confined field tests of event GR2E introgression lines to assess their agronomic performance and carotenoid expression. Results from confined tests in the Philippines and Bangladesh have shown that GR2E introgression lines matched the performance of the recurrent parents for agronomic and yield performance, and the key components of grain quality. Moreover, no differences were observed in terms of pest and disease reaction. The best performing lines identified in each genetic background had significant amounts of carotenoids in the milled grains. These lines can supply 30–50% of the estimated average requirements of vitamin A.

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Introduction

Rice ( Oryza sativa ) is the major source of energy and nutrition for more than half the world’s population 1 . However, rice supplies minimal micronutrients in its milled form and completely lacks β-carotene which is the precursor for vitamin A. Thus, resource-poor people primarily dependent on rice with little access to diverse diets suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, also termed hidden hunger 2 , 3 . Even though efforts are being made to address micronutrient deficiencies by supplementation, fortification, and dietary diversification, the problem still persists globally. Biofortification of major staple crops has been recognized as one of the sustainable means to tackle micronutrient deficiencies especially in the vulnerable target groups in rural areas 4 .

Vitamin A is essential for various functions in the human body such as development and functioning of the visual system, differentiation and maintenance of cells, epithelial membrane integrity, and production of red blood cells, immune system, reproduction, and iron metabolism 5 , 6 . An estimated 190 million children and 19 million pregnant women have vitamin A deficiency (VAD), and almost a million children go blind every year 7 . In the Philippines, VAD ranges between 19.6 to 27.9% in infants and preschool children 8 , while in Bangladesh, over half of the preschool age (56.3%) and school age children (53.3%) at the national level were found to exhibit at least a mild grade of VAD 9 .

Several crops such as maize, cassava, and sweet potato have been successfully biofortified with elevated levels of provitamin A 10 , 11 . However, there is no naturally-occurring variation for provitamin A in grains in rice germplasm, so this has been achieved by using genetic engineering approaches. The genetic modification was made by the addition of two genes, phytoene synthase ( Zmpsy1 ) from Zea mays and carotene desaturase ( crtI ) gene from the common soil bacterium, Pantoea ananatis (syn. Erwinia uredovora ) into a temperate japonica rice variety, Kaybonnet, from the USA. This completed the carotenoid pathway in the grain and resulted in the accumulation of β-carotene in the endosperm 12 , 13 . However, the transfer of this golden rice trait from Kaybonnet into additional locally-adapted and widely-grown rice varieties is required for the successful release and adoption of golden rice in Asia.

Among the six second-generation Golden Rice (GR2) events received by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), event GR2E was found to contain a single intact copy of the inserted DNA integrated at a single site within the rice genome, giving rise to agronomically desirable progeny with suitable grain carotenoid content. This event has been transferred into Asian rice varieties through marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC). MABC has been successfully used to transfer high value genes/QTLs for disease resistance, submergence and drought tolerance traits into popular rice varieties without altering their desirable traits 14 , 15 , 16 .

Development of stable golden rice breeding lines with nutritionally relevant levels of provitamin A and without trait-associated yield, grain quality, or disease resistance penalties relative to the recipient parental varieties is essential for the successful adoption of golden rice. Introgression of the GR2E locus from GR2E Kaybonnet into PSBRc82, IR64, and BRRI dhan29 (BR29) was performed at IRRI through MABC along with selections for desirable agronomic and grain quality traits. The phenotypic evaluation was conducted under screen house conditions. Selection of homozygous plants and lines were carried out under field conditions at IRRI. Agronomic evaluations of selected lines were carried out under field conditions in a series of confined field tests (CTs) at IRRI, PhilRice and BRRI.

The main objectives of the present work were to: develop agronomically desirable lines of provitamin A enriched GR2E golden rice in the genetic backgrounds of popular rice varieties from Asia; to understand the effects of genetic background and environment on carotenoid expression, and to identify stable and productive lines of GR2E golden rice for varietal evaluation.

Introgression of event GR2E into multiple genetic backgrounds

A series of five backcrosses of event GR2E Kaybonnet into three widely-grown rice varieties, IR64, PSBRc82, and BR29, resulted in the identification of introgression lines that were agronomically similar to their respective recipient parents. The stability and inheritance of the GR2E locus was confirmed using event-specific PCR in every generation, where it was found to segregate without distortion in a typical 1:1 Mendelian ratio in all the backcross generations (BC 1 to BC 5 ) and genetic backgrounds. All seeds containing the GR2E event showed the typical golden yellow color, indicating the expression of the provitamin A trait in the endosperm. Hemizygous (It is a condition in a diploid organism, where only one copy of the locus is present) plants phenotypically similar to their respective recipient parents were identified, backcrossed and advanced up to BC 5 F 1 , and with each successive backcross there was a progressive increase in similarity of the progenies to their respective recurrent (recipient) parents (Fig.  1 ). A total of 400, 190, and 94 BC 5 F 1 plants of IR64, PSBRc82, and BR29, respectively, were phenotyped and genotyped by event-specific PCR. Yellow BC 5 F 2 seeds were selected and analyzed for total carotenoid content, which ranged from 3.6–6.2 ppm in IR64, 3.1–6.4 ppm in PSBRc82, and 3.2–8.0 ppm in BR29. The BC 5 F 2 plants were closer to respective recipient parents for key agronomic traits with average days to flowering (DTF), plant height (PH) and number of panicles (NP) of the selected BC 5 progenies were 71.5 days, 108 cm and 15 for IR64, 82.5 days, 122.3 cm and 15.4 for PSBRc82 and 83 days, 117 cm and 17 for BR29 respectively. The final set of BC 5 F 3 selected lines had background recovery of more than 98%. Agro-morphological traits, panicle characteristics, and grain parameters were similar to the recipient parents and no unintended, unexpected, effects due to the presence of the GR2E event were observed throughout the backcross breeding program. Based on the overall agronomic performance, carotenoid levels, and genetic background recovery, 40 BC 5 F 1 plants in the IR64 background, and 20 BC 5 F 1 plants in each of the PSBRc82 and BR29 backgrounds were selected. The BC 5 F 2 seeds produced by each of these plants were further evaluated under field conditions in confined tests and plants homozygous for the GR2E locus were selected.

( a – c ) GR2E introgression lines.

Selection of homozygous and agronomically acceptable GR2E lines

The first confined field test of GR2E breeding lines was carried out during the 2015WS at IRRI to make individual homozygous plant selections. From among 8000 BC 5 F 2 plants tested, a total of 602, 439, and 471 plants homozygous for the GR2E locus were identified in IR64, PSBRc82, and BR29, respectively (Fig S1 ). Efforts were focused on the lines homozygous for GR2E; however, hemizygous and null plants were also phenotyped to determine the impact of the presence of the GR2E locus on agronomic traits. The pair-wise t-tests were conducted between families derived from single BC 5 F 1 plants within each of the three genetic backgrounds. Significant differences between families for total carotenoids were noted in a number of the possible pair-wise comparisons (data not shown). The mean comparisons between homozygous, hemizygous and null GR2E plants within each of the three populations did not show any abnormal deviations for key agronomic traits (Fig S2 ). The mean PH of lines carrying GR2E were marginally shorter than the respective recipient parent. For the remaining traits there were no clear differences between plants carrying GR2E and the respective parent variety. A total of 70 BC 5 F 3 ILs similar to their respective parents and having higher levels of carotenoids were selected for IR64 and PSBRc82 genetic backgrounds.

Evaluation of GR2E introgression lines in multi-location replicated confined tests

Agronomic performance of GR2E Introgression Lines (ILs) and their respective control varieties were assessed in a series of CTs at IRRI (2015WS, 2016DS and 2016WS), PhilRice (2015WS and 2016DS) and BRRI in Bangladesh (2016 Boro). A total of 70 ILs similar to their respective parents in agronomic performance and having the greatest levels of carotenoids were selected from each of IR64 and PSBRc82 backgrounds. A total of 14 agronomic, yield and yield-related traits and carotenoid content were measured from the different confined tests. Among the 70 ILs tested during the 2015WS at IRRI, PSBRc82 GR2E ILs showed small but statistically significant differences from non-transgenic PSBRc82 for eight traits including days to flowering (DTF), plant height (PH), Flag leaf length (FL), flag leaf width (FW), filled spikelets (FS), total number of spikelets per plant (TSP), grain length (GL) and hundred seed weight (HSW) (Table 1 ). However, in successive CTs conducted using 32 GR2E PSBRc82 ILs at IRRI and PhilRice, only FL, GL and HSW (2016DS), and GL, HSW and plot yield (PY) (2016WS; IRRI) showed significant differences. On the other hand, no significant differences were observed during the 2016DS and only GL and HSW showed significant differences at PhilRice in 2016WS (Table 2 ). Similarly GR2E IR64 ILs showed small but significant differences to the recipient parent for FL, TSP, GL, GW and HSW in 2015DS and for FW, FS, spikelet fertility (SF) and PY in 2016DS, while only GL showed significant difference in 2016WS. For the CT conducted with GR2E BR29 ILs in Bangladesh in the 2016 Boro season there were no significant differences from BR29 for all the traits measured (Table 3 ). Significant variations in total carotenoids among different families were observed in all backgrounds. The highest concentration of total carotenoids was observed in the BR29 background, followed by the PSBRc82 background, while the IR64 background had the lowest concentration of total caroteneoids (Tables 1 , 2 , 3 ). The grain samples of GR2E ILs along with recipient parents are shown in Fig.  2 . Grain quality traits amylose content (AC), gel consistency (GC) and alkali spreading value (ASV) were measured for PSBRc82, IR64 and BR29 (Tables 1 , 2 , 3 ). There were no significant differences for AC between GR2E PSBRc82 ILs and PSBRc82 in all the trials. There were no significant differences in ASV and AC between GR2E IR64 ILs and the IR64 parent, while for BR29 there were no differences between the transgenic and the control except for AC. The background recovery of final set of selected BC 5 F 3 ILs showed more than 98% recipient genome in all the three genetic backgrounds (Fig S3 – S5 ). There was no significant difference in AC except in BR29, similarly for GC some minor significant differences were observed in PSBRc82 and IR64 in some seasons.

Grain samples of GR2E golden rice and respective recipient parents.

Correlation between yield, yield related traits and carotenoid content

The correlation among yield and yield related traits; and with total carotenoid content is presented in the Figs S6 – S8 . Over all there was no specific trend in correlations among different yield and yield related traits. Except in one environment carotenoid content was negatively but non-significantly associated with PY in all the three genetic backgrounds. The correlation analysis of carotenoid content between different seasons showed highly significant correlation in all the three genetic backgrounds.

Effect of genetic background and environment on expression of carotenoids

The combined analysis of variance for carotenoid content at two months after harvest showed that there were significant genotypic, seasonal and location effects on the expression of carotenoid content. However, there were no significant genotype and environmental interactions (G × E) for carotenoid content except CT2 PR vs CT4 (Table 4 ). However, among the three genetic backgrounds, expression of carotenoids was higher in GR2E BR29 ILs followed by PSBRc82 and lowest in GR2EIR64 ILs (Fig.  3 , Fig S9 ). There were very highly positive significant correlations for carotenoid content estimated in different locations both within and between seasons (Figs S10 – S12 ). In general carotenoids expression was bit higher in WS than in DS, but also among most of the CTs no significant G × E interaction was observed (Table 4 ).

Carotenoid levels in different genetic backgrounds.

Identification of superior GR2E NILs for multi-location evaluation

We selected five GR2E introgression lines each for PSBRc82 and IR64, for BR29 eight lines were selected from the CTs. These lines will be further evaluated in multi-location field testing in the Philippines and Bangladesh respectively. The list of selected lines and their corresponding agronomic performance is provided in Table 5 . The ILs were similar to the respective recipient parents in all the agronomic, yield and yield traits measured, and the total carotenoids ranged from 3.8 to 5.5 ppm in the DS and 4.1 to 6.1 in the WS. Among the eight selected GR2E BR29 ILs no significant variation was observed in any trait except yield, with an advantage of 12.8% over BR29.

Most of the dietary vitamin A is of plant origin in the form of provitamin A that is converted to vitamin A in the body 17 . VAD is persistent in most of the rice eating countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America 18 , 19 . Therefore, enriching rice with provitamin A through biofortification is a viable and complementary intervention to tackle the VAD. The provitamin A trait was introduced into the rice variety Kaybonnet through genetic engineering 13 , which has a temperate japonica genetic background and is not well adapted to the tropical conditions in most rice growing Asian countries. We developed GR2E event introgressed golden rice ILs in the genetic backgrounds of IR64, PSBRc82 and BR29.

Introgression of the GR2E produced agronomically superior plants

Golden rice GR2E is genetically stable and molecularly clean event useful for breeding ( https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qpiz0cftefcaceq/AAByIpj_HED3zgqH7ufW7A-ta?dl=0 ; https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/code/applications/Documents/A1138%20Application_Redacted.pdf ). The breeding process to develop GR2E introgression lines did not show any abnormal plant phenotypes both in homozygous and hemizygous conditions indicating the genetic stability of the GR2E gene and trait expression. Both the phenotypic and genotypic based segregation analysis showed typical Mendelian segregation ratio in different segregating generations. GR2E advance backcross progenies were phenotypically very similar to their respective recipient parents. Transgenic events with single copy, clean integration and showing normal Mendelian segregation are considered ideal for research and breeding purposes, as they do not alter the host plant genome 20 , 21 , 22 .

Agronomic performance at field level and G × E studies showed that the GR2E gene did not alter any of the traits of the recipient parents in all its zygosity conditions. Overall plant performance was better during DS and among the genetic backgrounds the GR2EPSBRc82 lines performed better than the GR2EIR64 lines. Morphological traits such as panicle type, panicle exertion, grain shape, flag leaf length and width were similar for the GR2E ILs. Many lines performed equally similar to the respective recurrent parents, allowing the selection of advanced lines in all backgrounds for further testing in multi-location trials. The results showed that back cross process recovered almost all the desirable agronomic, yield and grain quality traits of the respective parents with significant expression of vitamin A. Despite many typhoons, heavy rains and high winds during the trials. There were no severe lodging incidences observed. Insects and diseases incidences were monitored during the two growing seasons at two different plant growth stages: maximum tillering stage (vegetative stage) and 50% flowering. Generally, crop stand was good with manageable level of insect pests and diseases during the growing seasons. Insects observed (both pest and beneficial insects) were found to be present in both test materials. We did not notice any difference between GR2E introgression lines and their respective recipient parents for the pest or diseases pressure on the crop across the confined field tests.

Woodfield and White 23 , and Badenhorst et al . 24 opined that development of transgenic product is not limited only to transformation, but also includes breeding through further backcrossing of transgenes with recipient parents and selection for desired traits of interest, in order to expedite commercial product development. For commercial deployment of any new variety with one or more introduced new trait(s) of a staple crop, in parallel to yield and other key agronomic traits, the newly developed variety should have essentially similar or better performance against biotic and abiotic stresses and grain quality traits compared to recipient variety; the introduced trait(s) should not alter these traits of the recipient variety 25 , 26 .

Grain quality and proximate composition of GR is similar to recipient rice varieties

Furthermore, different cooking and eating quality traits like, AC and ASV did not show any significant difference between the ILs and their respective recipient parents in any CTs. The golden rice breeding lines with significant amount of provitamin A accumulated in the grains helps to tackle VAD in high risk countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines. However, it is a requirement to assess the composition of genetically modified crops to see if any significant changes in grain quality, nutrients and anti-nutrients contents in comparison to traditional counterpart and to assess the safety of the intended or unintended changes 27 , 28 . The compositional analysis of golden rice showed that all the compounds measured are within the biologically acceptable range and does not pose any risk to human health 29 . Earlier reports on transgenic products for insect and herbicide tolerance have also shown that little biologically meaningful changes in grain quality, nutrient and anti-nutrient composition 30 . There was a clear environmental effect, even though total carotenoids varied with environments, the genotypes with high carotenoids were always the best in all the locations. Such variations in trait expression due to environmental and agronomic factors and genetic basis have been well explained 31 , 32 .

Genetic background and environment influences carotenoid expression

Stable trait expression and minimal G × E for any trait of importance, especially for grain micronutrients and vitamins is essential for varietal release as well as for their successful adoption 4 , 33 , 34 . Total carotenoids were well correlated across the sites and generations; and expressed stably across the environments but there is a genetic background effect. Carotenoids expression varied even within segregating lines of different generations in each of the genetic backgrounds. So targeted breeding and careful selection of progenies with carotenoids test in each generation is necessary for advancing the lines. Mapping background QTLs and genes and using them in MAB can provide opportunity for precise development of GR lines with highest expression. The carotenoid levels were found to vary across the genetic backgrounds, locations and seasons but there were no significant G × E interactions. The highest expression of carotenoids was observed in BR29 background and the lowest in IR64 background. Several earlier attempts to develop golden rice events and introgression lines had to face the genetic background effects. Transgenic events developed in the indica backgrounds of IR64 and BR29 reported lower expression of GR genes in IR64 and higher expression in BR29 transformants, even ILs developed in IR64 showed lesser expression 35 . Moreover, ILs did not show any significant difference in yield when expressing the genes in the carotenoid pathway 36 . In our study also lowest expression was noticed in IR64. Simultaneously efforts are being made to develop next generation golden rice events with elevated levels of carotenoids with longer stability 37 , 38 , 39 . However, a genetic background effect is still a major bottle neck for introgression of carotenoid trait. Background effect on the expression of introduced traits was reported in rice for submergence tolerance, yield and related traits, disease resistance and drought tolerance 15 , 16 , 40 , 41 .

The variation in carotenoid concentration in grains might be due to variations in sunlight exposure and intensity across the locations and seasons 42 . Differential accumulation of β-carotene due to variation in exposure period and intensity of sunlight was also observed in algae, carrots, pumpkin and maize 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 . Moreover, like other carotenoids containing crops the carotenoid concentration in the grains of golden rice degrades over time after harvest. The degradation rate is very high at first few weeks after harvest and it becomes very slow after 6–8 weeks (data not shown). The carotenoids degradation rate is highly influenced by the storage temperature, moisture and exposure to light of the storage environment 22 , 47 . So, development of golden rice varieties with stable carotenoids expression is essential to achieve the impact 37 . However, there might be genotypic effect on the retention ability for carotenoids in rice grain. Understanding background effect and standardization of post-harvest handling is needed to achieve desired level of carotenoids in the introgression lines of multiple backgrounds.

Superior introgression lines were identified for multi-location trials

The five back crosses of GR2E gene into three genetic backgrounds resulted in identification of ILs similar to respective recipient parents. Adoption by the farmers and preference by the consumers for a specific crop variety particularly rice introduced with a new trait largely depends on its yield, grain quality and eating quality parameters. The introduced trait should be stable over locations and seasons to expedite the adoption level. Considering the present levels of carotenoids and per capita consumption in these target countries, the resulting ILs would be able to supply 30–50% of the EAR for vitamin A for the high risk population group if GR2E rice is consumed regularly.

Materials and methods

Development of gr2e near isogenic lines.

Kaybonnet is a high yielding japonica rice variety with blast resistance and excellent milling quality commercially cultivated in the USA. The genetic modification was made by the addition of two genes, phytoene synthase (Zmpsy1) from Zea mays and carotene desaturase (crtI) gene from the common soil bacterium, Pantoea ananatis (syn. Erwinia uredovora ). The GR2E Kaybonnet was crossed with the popular high yielding and adopted rice varieties such as IR64, PSBRc82, and BR29. IR64 is popular in most of the Asian countries, PSBRc82 in the Philippines, and BR29 in Bangladesh. In each generation, segregating materials were genotyped using GR2E event specific molecular marker. Plants containing the GR2E event and phenotypically similar to respective recipients were selected and backcrossed in each backcross generation to advance the materials to BC 5 F 2 . Background selections were performed using 100 randomly selected SSR markers in BC 1 and BC 2 , while selected plants from BC 3 , BC 4 and BC 5 were genotyped using the 6 K SNPs set at Genotyping Service Laboratory, IRRI. Only yellow-colored BC 5 F 2 seeds were separated and analyzed for total carotenoid content. A total of 40 BC 5 F 2 families for IR64 and 20 families each for PSBRc82 and BR29 were selected for evaluation in the confined test at IRRI. We have provided details of MAB scheme and evaluation of introgression lines in the Fig.  4 .

Development and evaluation of GR2E introgression lines.

Experimental materials used in the confined tests

A total of 8000 individual plants comprised of 4000 BC 5 F 2 plants from GR2E IR64, 2000 plants each from GR2E PSBRc82 and GR2E BR29 were included in a CT in the dry season of 2015 (2015DS). Plants were genotyped using GR2E specific markers and homozygous plants were selected. Selected BC 5 F 3 homozygous plants from each genetic background along with the respective recipient and donor parents were evaluated in a series of CTs at IRRI and PhilRice in the Philippines and at BRRI in Bangladesh. The list of GR2E materials evaluated and the details of the CTs is provided in the Supplementary Table S1 . Three CTs were conducted for GR2E IR64 and GR2E PSBRc82 at IRRI, while the selected lines of GR2E PSBRc82 were evaluated for two seasons at PhilRice. Further, BC 5 F 3 seeds of GR2E BR29 were sent to Bangladesh, multiplied in the screen house, and further evaluated in a CT at BRRI, Gazipur, for one season in 2016.

Crop management and observations

Seeds of the selected plants of GR2E introgression lines, recipient and donor parents were seeded in trays. Seedlings were transplanted at 21 days after sowing with a standard spacing of 20 × 20 cm. Details of the experimental design and layout are provided in Tables S1 and S2 . Standard agronomic practices were followed to raise a good crop, including the application of need-based plant protection measures to protect the crop from diseases and insect pests. Data were gathered on key agronomic, yield and yield-related traits; and total carotenoid content was measured two months after harvest. Grain quality data were generated from the selected lines of CT2 and from all lines included in CT3 and CT4. Insect pest infestations and disease incidences were recorded at maximum tillering and at 50% flowering. Agronomic traits were measured on five random plants from each entry. Days to 50% flowering was recorded on a whole plot basis. At maturity, five selected plants were harvested from individual plots and the remaining inner plants were harvested in bulk. Final plot yield was adjusted to a uniform grain moisture content of 14%.

DNA was extracted using fresh leaf samples and following a modified cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) protocol 48 . Nanopore was used to check the quality and quantity of the DNA extracted. The DNA samples were diluted with distilled water into an equal concentration of 25 ng/µl. Amplification of event specific markers using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out with a 10 µl reaction mixture that contained 1.5 µl of DNA template, 1.0 µl of 10 × PCR buffer with MgCl 2 , 0.5 µl each of forward and reverse primers, 0.2 µl of 1 mM dNTP and 0.1 µl of Taq DNA polymerase and 5.7 µl distilled water. The amplification reaction was carried out in a 96-well PCR plate in a thermocycler using the following temperature profile: denaturation, 95 °C for 5 min; 35 cycles of denaturation at 95 °C for 45 s, annealing at 55 °C for 45 s and extension at 72 °C for 45 s; and final extension at 72 °C for 8 min and long-term storage at 10 °C. Amplification products were separated by gel electrophoresis on 1.2% agarose (0.5 × TBE; 160 V for 45 min) and visualized using SYBR Safe DNA stain and imaging using an AlphaImager HP (Protein Simple, San Jose, CA) gel documentation system. The GR2E specific primer sequences as follows.

ZD-E1-P1 5′-GCTTAAACCGGGTGAATCAGCGTTT-3′

ZD-E1-P2 5′-CGAGAGGAAGGGAAGAGAGGCCACCAA-3′

ZD-E1-P3 5′-CTCCCTCACTGGATTCCTGCTACCCATAGTAT-3′

Grain quality analysis

Grain quality analysis was carried out at the Analytical Service Laboratory (ASL) of IRRI. We measured/analyzed grain length and width, amylose content, alkali spreading value and gel consistency, using standard protocols 49 . Similar analyses were performed at BRRI on grain samples of GR2E BR29.

Amylose content

Amylose content (AC) was determined on milled rice extracts using a segmented flow analyzer. Rice samples were ground to a fine powder using a cyclone mill. Sodium Hydroxide and Ethanol were added to a test portion of the sample and heated in a boiling bath for 10 min. Acetic acid and Iodine solution was mixed with the aliquot of the test solution to form a blue starch iodine complex and its absorbance was measured at 620 nm using a colorimeter 49 . The result of the analysis was reported as apparent amylose to take into account the contribution of amylopectin present in the rice, which also forms a blue color starch iodine complex.

Gelatinization temperature

Rice starch gelatinization temperature (GT) was estimated by determining the alkali spreading value (ASV) of milled rice grains in potassium hydroxide solution. Six kernels of whole milled rice were incubated with 10 ml of 1.7% KOH for 23 h at ambient temperature (25 °C). The appearance and disintegration of the endosperm was visually rated depending on the intensity of spreading and swelling. ASV of 1–2 was classified as high GT, 3 for intermediate to high GT, 4–5 for intermediate GT and 6–7 for low GT.

Gel consistency

Samples of milled rice were ground to a fine powder, placed in a culture tube and suspended in a mixture of ethanol and 0.2 N KOH containing thymol blue and incubated in a boiling water bath for 15 min, followed by cooling to room temperature (15 min) and placing in an ice bath (20 min). Gel consistency of the rice paste (4.4% w/v) was determined by measuring the length of the cold gel in the culture tube after placing horizontally for 1 h. Rice was differentiated into three consistency types—soft (61 to 100 mm), medium (41 to 60 mm) and hard (27 to 40 mm).

Carotenoid concentrations

Total carotenoid concentration was estimated following the protocol developed by Gemmecker et al . 50 . Dehulled and polished rice seeds were ground to a fine powder using a modified paint shaker and accurately weighed amounts (ca. 500 mg) were dispensed into 15-ml Falcon tubes, mixed by sonication with 2 ml distilled water and incubated for 10 min at 60 °C. Cooled samples were centrifuged (3000 g , 5 min) and the supernatant fractions were transferred to new 15-ml tubes. Acetone (2 ml) and 100 μl of the lipophilic metallo organic dye, VIS682A (20 μg/ml; QCR Solutions Corp.), as an internal standard were added to each sample followed by mixing with short pulses of sonication and centrifugation (3000 g , 5 min). Supernatants were transferred to 15-ml tubes and the pellets were re-extracted twice more with 2-ml volumes of acetone and the resulting supernatant fractions were combined. Two ml petroleum ether (PE): di-ethyl ether (DE) (2:1 v/v) was added to each combined supernatant fraction (ca. 8 ml) and volumes were adjusted to 14 ml with distilled water. After vortexing, phase separation was achieved by centrifugation (3000 g , 5 min). The organic phase was recovered by pipetting out and transferred into a 2 ml graduated Eppendorf tube and the remaining aqueous phase was re-extracted with another 2 ml PE:DE (2:1 v/v), followed by centrifugation (3000 g , 5 min). The combined organic phases were dried using a vacuum-concentrator (Eppendorf concentrator 5301) and re-dissolved in 1 ml acetone. Maximum absorbance of sample extract at 450 nm and maximum absorbance of internal standard at 680 nm was determined using DU730 Beckman Coulter UV/VIS spectrophotometer. Concentrations of total carotenoids were determined from A450 nm assuming an average E450  nm = 142, 180 l mol −1  cm −1 in acetone using the Beer-Lambert law corrected for sample dilution and normalized to the internal standard.

Statistical analysis

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Mixed model for single site analysis:

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Mixed model for multiple site analysis:

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Acknowledgements

This work was made possible through support of grants provided from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and US Agency for International Development.

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B.P.M.S. designed the study, conducted experiments, analyzed data, prepared manuscript, S.M. conducted experiments, data analysis, draft preparation, M.S. involved in genotyping, data collection, carotenoid analysis, R.L.O., D.B.R., R.M., R.R.S., A.A., A.T.R., M.A.T., A.A.A., P.S.B. and M.A.K. conducted field experiments, reviewed manuscript; R.F.R., R.B. and D.J.M. involved in experimental design and edited the manuscript.

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Mallikarjuna Swamy, B.P., Marundan, S., Samia, M. et al. Development and characterization of GR2E Golden rice introgression lines. Sci Rep 11 , 2496 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82001-0

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Disembedding grain: Golden Rice, the Green Revolution, and heirloom seeds in the Philippines

• Published: 16 April 2016
• Volume 34 , pages 87–102, ( 2017 )

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“Golden Rice” has played a key role in arguments over genetically modified (GM) crops for many years. It is routinely depicted as a generic GM vitamin tablet in a generic plant bound for the global South. But the release of Golden Rice is on the horizon only in the Philippines, a country with a storied history and complicated present, and contested future for rice production and consumption. The present paper corrects this blinkered view of Golden Rice through an analysis of three distinctive “rice worlds” of the Philippines: Green Revolution rice developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the 1960s, Golden Rice currently being bred at IRRI, and a scheme to promote and export traditional “heirloom” landrace rice. More than mere seed types, these rices are at the centers of separate “rice worlds” with distinctive concepts of what the crop should be and how it should be produced. In contrast to the common productivist framework for comparing types of rice, this paper compares the rice worlds on the basis of geographical embeddedness, or the extent to which local agroecological context is valorized or nullified in the crop’s construction. The Green Revolution spread generic, disembedded high-input seeds to replace locally adapted landraces as well as peasant attitudes and practices associated with them. The disembeddedness of Golden Rice that boosts its value as a public relations vehicle has also been the main impediment in it reaching farmers’ fields, as it has proved difficult to breed into varieties that grow well specifically in the Philippines. Finally, and somewhat ironically, IRRI has recently undertaken research and promotion of heirloom seeds in collaboration with the export scheme.

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Adapting the Green Revolution for Laos

Lessons from the Asian Green Revolution in Rice

Native/Heirloom Rice in the Cordilleras: Status, Conservation, and Utilization

Most terms for the technology are contested, but genetically modified here simply refers to incorporation of recombinant DNA. GMO refers to a genetically modified organism.

Breeders and researchers in Viet Nam, India, and Bangladesh are also working with Golden Rice, but release is not on the horizon in any of these countries.

IRRI (see Fig.  2 ) collaborates with PhilRice—the Philippine Rice Research Institute—in the Golden Rice development and testing.

The rice sector in the Philippines is unusual in other respects outside the scope of this paper. Despite being a major rice producer, it is also one of the world’s largest importers of rice. It is also home to particularly advanced participatory breeding schemes for rice (Sievers-Glotzbach 2014 ).

For example, NERICA varieties, much heralded by breeders, have not been taken up with enthusiasm (Kijima et al. 2011 ).

Note too that none of the improvements anticipated in 2004 have come to pass. The “New Plant Type,” portrayed as a stage of progress already achieved, was incapable of out-yielding the best indica rice varieties (Peng et al. 2008 ); no transgenic rice varieties have yet been approved for commercial planting; and C4 rice (a proposed plant transformed to have a radically more efficient photosynthetic process) is a speculative product still far from potential release (Normile 2006 ; von Caemmerer et al. 2012 ). Datta expected that by 2015 breeders would be designing new crop varieties from scratch, but this remains a distant prospect (Cheung 2014 ; Long et al. 2015 ).

Some use “Green Revolution” for all “modern varieties” in developing countries (Evenson and Gollin 2003 ), although there were many differences between the 1960s revolution and later breeding (see Evenson 2004 ).

CIMMYT and IRRI are two of the network of 14 breeding and agricultural research centers comprising the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Also known as “early” varieties, this mainly meant photoperiod-insensitive plants that could be used for more than one cropping cycle per year.

At the time, the explicit treatment of locally adapted seeds and practices as problems to be overcome was challenged by few, the exception being geographer Carl Sauer (Richards 2004 , p. 266; Wright 1984 ).

This disembedding was reduced somewhat by placeless elite strains being distributed to other research centers where they were crossbred with other varieties. Well after the Green Revolution, IRRI breeders became more interested in non-ideotype breeding, as discussed below.

In Mexico, Borlaug had gone a step beyond ideal field conditions to outright rigged demonstrations in which conventional varieties were fertilized so heavily they fell over (Cullather 2010 , p. 191).

Monsanto has been eager to take credit for Golden Rice (Stone 2011b ), although it neither funded nor conducted research on Golden Rice. It did waive some of its patent rights on a promoter gene used in early experiments, but this gene has long since been replaced.

There are two publications specifically on potential impacts of Golden Rice in the Philippines. One of these (Zimmermann and Qaim 2004 ) includes no actual information about the Philippines beyond a few outdated countrywide health statistics. The other (Dawe et al. 2002 ) is an empirical study of VAD levels in an area where rice is neither a major crop nor a dominant starch in local diets.

Field trials of Golden Rice are also planned for Bangladesh and Indonesia, but commercial release in these countries appears to be much farther off.

The normal method of creating a GM crop is to (1) engineer a genetic construct containing one or more genes for desired traits, and then (2) expose cells from the target plant to an agent capable of inserting the construct into the cells’ DNA. Each instance where the construct is successfully integrated into the target cell DNA is a unique “transformation event.” Transformed cells are then selected and grown into whole plants that can be bred conventionally. There are several different Golden Rice 2 (GR2) transformation events; at least one is located in an exon and one in an intron associated with root development (Dubock 2014 , p. 81).

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Acknowledgments

Major funding for this research came from the John Templeton Foundation initiative, “Can GM Crops Help to Feed the World?” Additional funds came from the ESRC STEPS Centre at Sussex University, UK. For assistance and insights we are grateful to Bruce Tolentino and Nollie Vera Cruz of IRRI; Marlon Martin and Jacy Moore of SITMo; Stephen Acabado of UCLA; Jovy Camso of Mountain Province Agriculture Department; Vicky Garcia, Mary Hensley, and Jimmy Lingayo of the CHRP; Tony La Viña of Ateneo School of Government; Tony Alfonso formerly of PhilRice; Amber Heckelman of University of British Columbia; Priscilla Stone of S.I.T.; and two anonymous referees.

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Stone, G.D., Glover, D. Disembedding grain: Golden Rice, the Green Revolution, and heirloom seeds in the Philippines. Agric Hum Values 34 , 87–102 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9696-1

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Golden Rice

Golden Rice was engineered from normal rice by Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer in the 1990s to help improve human health. Golden Rice has an engineered multi-gene biochemical pathway in its genome. This pathway produces beta-carotene, a molecule that becomes vitamin A when metabolized by humans. Ingo Potrykus worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and Peter Beyer worked at University of Freiburg, in Freiburg, Germany. The US Rockefeller Foundation supported their collaboration. The scientists and their collaborators first succeeded in expressing beta-carotene in rice in 1999, and they published the results in 2000. Since then, scientists have improved Golden Rice through laboratory and field trials, but as of 2013 no countries have grown it commercially. 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. Beta-carotene is part of a class of molecules called carotenoids, one of hundreds that plants naturally produce, and it has a yellow-orange hue. Carotenoids are essential nutrients for humans, because they are precursors to molecules needed in metabolism. The human body transforms beta-carotene, also known as pro-vitamin A, into vitamin A, which is necessary to produce retinal and retinoic acid. When people lack access to foods containing beta-carotene, because they eat mostly cereal crops such as rice, wheat, or sorghum, they are at risk of blindness and disease.

The creation of much plant biotechnology involves at least three steps: 1) researchers transfer related genes into the plant embryos; 2) the embryos incorporate the new genes into their DNA, produce the desired proteins, and grow and produce seeds; and 3) the successful heritability of the new genes, meaning that the modified plants pass on the inserted genes to their offspring. Potrykus was an early proponent of scientific rigor in biotechnology, maintaining that scientists must show that the engineered plants pass all three steps. In the development of Golden Rice, there was one further step: researchers had to get all three of the inserted genes to work in concert. By coordinating the different genes, rice endosperm can create beta-carotene.

The strategy of using recombinant DNA to create vitamin A-enriched rice had percolated within the Rockefeller Foundation since the mid 1980s. The Rockefeller Foundation, headquartered in New York, New York, had a history of investing in the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Philippines. The Rockefeller Foundation viewed engineering rice as a good mechanism to help improve the health of many. They chose to focus on rice because they argued that, although it feeds over half of the world's population, private companies hesitated to invest in rice research, and instead focused on crops like corn, soybean, and cotton. Unlike previous innovations in rice, the Rockefeller project would focus on micronutrient fortification, or increasing the quantity of biological nutrients in edible plants for human health. After the advent of agricultural biotechnology in the 1970s, rice biotechnology became a focus of the Rockefeller Foundation's humanitarian efforts in the 1980s.

In 1993 Potrykus, a plant biotechnologist, and Beyer, a biochemist, started the Golden Rice project with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the European Union, and the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science. Seven years later, members of Potrykus' lab in Zurich, Switzerland, finally worked through all of the necessary steps to successfully express not one, but three unique genes in rice embryos—two genes from daffodils and one from bacteria.

Because no one had previously successfully expressed three genes in a food crop, Potrykus' lab attempted multiple methods for the transformation. The first step was to insert the genes into the rice embryo, through particle bombardment or bacterial transfer. Potrykus' lab used an Agrobacterium -mediated transformation, where engineered bacteria inserted its DNA into the targeted rice plant embryos. This DNA contained all three genes—phytoene synthase ( psy , from daffodil), phytoene desaturase ( crtI from bacteria), and lycopene beta-cyclase ( lcy , from daffodil). Scientists also inserted other pieces of DNA that the genes needed to function in the cell, and they inserted marker genes to help them track the inserted DNA. Then the scientists grew, selected, and tested the embryos for beta-carotene. When full-grown, the rice plants produced and stored beta-carotene in their starch.

With the backing of Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden in Saint Louis, Missouri, the US popular media and scientific press widely promoted the creation of Golden Rice. The resulting paper in 2000, “Engineering the Provitamin A (beta-Carotene) Biosynthetic Pathway into (Carotenoid-Free) Rice Endosperm,” had greater than 1300 citations as of 2013. Since the initial experiments with rice, scientists have engineered other crops, including maize and potato, to produce beta-carotene using different biochemical pathways.

Rather than commercializing their invention, the inventors, especially Potrykus, worked to legally secure Golden Rice as a humanitarian project. They licensed Golden Rice to Syngenta (formerly Zeneca), a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Potrykus and Beyer then established a “Golden Rice Humanitarian Board” to oversee the development of the technology and grant noncommercial licenses to public research institutes. These national and international research organizations would adapt Golden Rice to local environmental and climate conditions. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) gained a license for non-commercial use from the Golden Rice project in 2001, aiming to spread the use of Golden Rice throughout Asia. Golden Rice Humanitarian Board oversees that these research institutes can acquire their licenses at low costs and in short periods to better promote the development of Golden Rice.

Both inventors credit Syngenta's Adrian Dubock with helping them navigate the complex intellectual property legal system around agricultural biotechnology. Potrykus and Beyer said they never anticipated the Intellectual and Technological Property Rights and material transfer agreements required for the production of Golden Rice. These licenses protect inventors' rights to genetic material, scientific techniques, and exchange of seeds for research. A legal assessment of Golden Rice in 2000 showed that it contained material protected by greater than seventy patents, but patents vary country to country. Many of the patents do not apply in developing countries, which are the target markets for Golden Rice.

Critics of Golden Rice include the environmental group Greenpeace, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Greenpeace has staged public protests against Golden Rice, and it opposes all genetically modified organisms. Greenpeace claimed that the amount of beta-carotene in Golden Rice was so small that one would need to consume massive quantities of rice to reach an effective dose. While it can be difficult to measure the ingestion of vitamins, a team of scientists from Syngenta in 2005 introduced Golden Rice 2, which produced increased levels of beta-carotene by substituting the original daffodil genes with corn genes.

As of 2013, tests of Golden Rice remained in field trials. IRRI, partnered with Helen Keller International, plans to introduce Golden Rice in Bangladesh and in the Philippines by crossing it with local, high-yielding rice varieties. While IRRI has participated in the Golden Rice project nearly since its invention, Helen Keller International, headquartered in New York, New York, joined the project in 2011 to support the public health benefits of vitamin A, which can prevent blindness. In the US, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported the Golden Rice project at IRRI. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, became a supporter of the Golden Rice project in 2011. Furthermore, the government of Bangladesh approved field trials of Golden Rice, and in 2012 estimated that varieties would be available for consumption by 2015.

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In A Grain Of Golden Rice, A World Of Controversy Over GMO Foods

Dan Charles

Genetically modified to be enriched with beta-carotene, golden rice grains (left) are a deep yellow. At right, white rice grains. Isagani Serrano/International Rice Research Institute hide caption

Genetically modified to be enriched with beta-carotene, golden rice grains (left) are a deep yellow. At right, white rice grains.

There's a kind of rice growing in some test plots in the Philippines that's unlike any rice ever seen before. It's yellow. Its backers call it " golden rice ." It's been genetically modified so that it contains beta-carotene, the source of vitamin A.

Millions of people in Asia and Africa don't get enough of this vital nutrient, so this rice has become the symbol of an idea: that genetically engineered crops can be a tool to improve the lives of the poor.

It's a statement that rouses emotions and sets off fierce arguments. There's a raging, global debate about such crops.

But before we get to that debate, and the role that golden rice plays in it, let's travel back in time to golden rice's origins.

It began with a conversation in 1984.

The science of biotechnology was in its infancy at this point. There were no genetically engineered crops yet. Scientists were just figuring out how to find genes and move them between different organisms.

Some people at the Rockefeller Foundation thought that these techniques might be useful for giving farmers in poor countries a bigger harvest.

So they set up a meeting at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in the Philippines, to talk about this.

Gary Toenniessen , who was in charge of the foundation's biotechnology program at the time, says that a lot of people at this meeting were very skeptical about biotechnology. They were plant breeders, masters of the traditional way to improve crops.

One evening, after the formal sessions, "a group of these breeders were sitting around at the guesthouse at IRRI, having a beer or two," says Toenniessen. After listening to their skepticism for a while, Toenniessen spoke up. If this technology did actually pan out, he said, and you could put any gene you wanted into rice, which one would you pick? "What's your favorite gene?"

They went around the room. Breeders talked about genes for resisting disease or surviving droughts.

They came to a breeder named Peter Jennings , a legendary figure in these circles. He'd created perhaps the most famous variety of rice in history, called IR 8 , which launched the so-called Green Revolution in rice-growing countries of Asia in the 1960s.

"Yellow endosperm," said Jennings. (The endosperm of a grain of rice or wheat is the main part that's eaten.)

"That kind of took everybody by surprise. It certainly took me by surprise. So I said, 'Why?' " Toenniessen recalls.

Jennings explained that the color yellow signals the presence of beta-carotene — the source of vitamin A. Yellow kinds of corn or sorghum exist naturally, and for years, Jennings said, he had been looking for similar varieties of rice. Regular white rice doesn't provide this vital nutrient, and it's a big problem.

"When children are weaned, they're often weaned on a rice gruel. And if they don't get any beta-carotene or vitamin A during that period, they can be harmed for the rest of their lives," says Toenniessen.

Toenniessen was persuaded, and the Rockefeller Foundation started a program aimed at creating, through technology, what Jennings had not been able to find in nature.

A global network of scientists at nonprofit research institutes started working on the problem.

The first real breakthrough came in 1999. Scientists in Switzerland inserted two genes into rice that switched on production of beta-carotene. A few years later, other researchers created an even better version .

A single bowl of this new golden rice can supply 60 percent of a child's daily requirement of vitamin A.

"It's a great product. And it's beautiful! It looks just like saffron rice," says Toenniessen, who's now a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Golden rice plants at a confined field trial in 2010. Courtesy of the International Rice Research Institute hide caption

Golden rice plants at a confined field trial in 2010.

Others, though, don't find it beautiful at all.

For instance, consider what happened just a few months ago. Some U.S.-funded researchers published the results of a nutritional study showing that people's bodies easily absorb the beta-carotene in golden rice. They'd carried out that study among children in China.

The result seemed like great news. But the environmental group Greenpeace immediately called it a scandal .

"People are angry, really furious about these tests, using Chinese children as guinea pigs," says Wang Jing, a campaigner for Greenpeace in China.

The Chinese government reacted quickly. It punished three Chinese co-authors of the study, removing them from their jobs.

In a report on the case, Chinese authorities say that the researchers didn't get all the approvals they needed before carrying out the study. Also, the researchers told the children, and their parents, that this was a special kind of rice high in beta-carotene, but they didn't always say it was genetically modified.

"They actually hid the fact that golden rice is a genetically modified crop," says Wang.

For some people, this makes all the difference in the world.

This is where golden rice gets caught up in the bigger argument over genetically engineered crops — specifically, the argument over who benefits from them.

Neth Daño , who works in the Philippines for the ETC Group , an advocate on behalf of small farmers, says the main purpose of genetically modifying crops has not been to help people; it's been driven by profit.

"A handful of corporations in developing countries has reaped billions in profits selling genetically modified seeds and proprietary herbicides," she says. Yet those companies have always claimed that this technology would benefit the poor. "The poor have always been at the center of each and every assertion about the importance of genetically modified organisms to mankind."

So this is the real significance of golden rice, she says. It gives biotech companies a chance to say, "See, biotechnology is good for the poor!"

"Some proponents are already announcing that the debate is over, that the golden rice product is the clincher."

Don't misunderstand me, Daño says: Golden rice is not purely public relations. It is, indeed, supposed to help malnourished people — although she doesn't think it's a very good way to help. She thinks it will be more expensive and less effective than traditional nutrition programs.

This rice is mainly going to help the image of biotechnology, she says.

This mixture of motives — helping people and promoting biotechnology — also shows up in the biography of the man who's now leading the golden rice effort.

Dr. Gerard Barry, IRRI's golden rice project leader, inspects golden rice in the screen house. Bill Sta. Clara/International Rice Research Institute hide caption

Gerard Barry , a native of Ireland, spent more than 20 years in St. Louis working for Monsanto, the company that pioneered genetically engineered crops.

He's listed as first inventor on some of Monsanto's most valuable patents . He found the gene that made crops immune to the weedkiller Roundup. That gene is now in soybeans, corn and cotton grown on hundreds of millions of acres.

But along the way, Barry also got interested in rice. "It was very exciting. It was probably my favorite crop to work on," he says. "Because you got to meet really passionate people. Rice is something that's vital to large numbers of people. I mean, a couple of billion people eat it."

Ten years ago, Barry left the corporate world and moved to the nonprofit International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines — the place where the idea of golden rice was born.

His job is now to shepherd it down the home stretch to the finish line.

Part of the job involves old-fashioned plant breeding to transfer the beta-carotene genes into rice varieties that farmers like to grow.

But before farmers can get their hands on golden rice, government regulators in each country need to agree that it's safe.

Later this year, the network of golden rice researchers will apply for approval in the Philippines. After that, they'll do the same in Bangladesh.

Yet that's only the first step. They'll have to roll out a marketing campaign on behalf of golden rice, and the campaign has to reach the poorest people in the most remote villages.

"Golden rice will be good for everybody, but some people need it more," Barry says. "Our job is to make sure that [those] people have access to it, understand the value of it, and ask for it."

This will be the final test of that 30-year-old brainstorm — the idea that genetically altered rice actually could be a cheap, self-multiplying source of this vital nutrient.

• golden rice
• genetically modified food

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Genetically Modified Rice Is Associated with Hunger, Health, and Climate Resilience

Kaori kobayashi.

1 Department of Food Nutrition Dietetics and Health, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA; ude.usk@iroakabok

Xiaohui Wang

2 College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China; ude.usk@gnawiuhoaix

Weiqun Wang

While nearly one in nine people in the world deals with hunger, one in eight has obesity, and all face the threat of climate change. The production of rice, an important cereal crop and staple food for most of the world’s population, faces challenges due to climate change, the increasing global population, and the simultaneous prevalence of hunger and obesity worldwide. These issues could be addressed at least in part by genetically modified rice. Genetic engineering has greatly developed over the century. Genetically modified rice has been approved by the ISAAA’s GM approval database as safe for human consumption. The aim behind the development of this rice is to improve the crop yield, nutritional value, and food safety of rice grains. This review article provides a summary of the research data on genetically modified rice and its potential role in improving the double burden of malnutrition, primarily through increasing nutritional quality as well as grain size and yield. It also reviews the potential health benefits of certain bioactive components generated in genetically modified rice. Furthermore, this article discusses potential solutions to these challenges, including the use of genetically modified crops and the identification of quantitative trait loci involved in grain weight and nutritional quality. Specifically, a quantitative trait locus called grain weight on chromosome 6 has been identified, which was amplified by the Kasa allele, resulting in a substantial increase in grain weight and brown grain. An overexpressing a specific gene in rice, Oryza sativa plasma membrane H+-ATPase1, was observed to improve the absorption and assimilation of ammonium in the roots, as well as enhance stomatal opening and photosynthesis rate in the leaves under light exposure. Cloning research has also enabled the identification of several underlying quantitative trait loci involved in grain weight and nutritional quality. Finally, this article discusses the increasing threats of climate change such as methane–nitrous oxide emissions and global warming, and how they may be significantly improved by genetically modified rice through modifying a water-management technique. Taken together, this comprehensive review will be of particular importance to the field of bioactive components of cereal grains and food industries trying to produce high-quality functional cereal foods through genetic engineering.

1. Introduction

Oryza sativa , more commonly known as rice, is an important cereal crop and essential food for most of the world’s population, especially in Asian countries [ 1 , 2 ]. As shown in Figure 1 , rice is the third top grain worldwide in terms of production in 2021/22. The relationship between humans and rice is incredibly old, and it is believed to have been cultivated in China as early as 10,000 years ago [ 3 ]. Although wild rice is often found in wetlands, there are two types of rice cultivation: dry-land rice and paddy rice. Compared to dry-land crops, paddy-cultivated rice has the advantages of less weeding, less soil runoff, and the ability to be grown in successive crops [ 3 ]. In addition, it would have a water storage effect as a source of groundwater. Rice, with its historical relationship to people, has significant potential for addressing numerous forthcoming challenges.

While the world population has been growing continually since 1955 ( Figure 2 ), developing and developed countries are facing different types of “malnutrition”. In developing countries, up to 828 million people are experiencing food insecurity and 49 million people are enduring a hunger crisis [ 4 ]. As a result, malnutrition kills 25,000 people each day [ 4 , 5 ]. Developed countries also face malnutrition issues, particularly diet-related non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and obesity [ 5 ]. Meanwhile, the world’s climate is rapidly changing. Climate change brings unstable weather, natural disasters, and a disruption to natural resources, all significantly impacting agricultural production. Extremely high temperatures cause depletion of water resources and reduce natural resources, such as habitat and food for beneficial insects (e.g., honeybees) [ 6 ]. As a result, crop flowering and pollination are inhibited, and weed and pest infestations increase. Droughts cause poor harvests and loss of agricultural land. Heavy rains cause flooding, which removes topsoil and damages crops [ 6 ]. One study estimates that climate change will make crop production (corn, rice, wheat, and soybeans) more precarious, with production declining by 8% by the 2050s in Africa and South Asia [ 7 ].

Introduced in 1996, genetically modified (GM) crops have been touted to increase food production by increasing yield per unit area (unit yield) without the destruction of nature by clearing or expanding farmland when compared to non-GM crops [ 8 ]. Rice has been genetically modified to produce a larger, more nutrient-dense product while increasing herbicide and pesticide resistance, accelerating photosynthesis, and producing essential proteins. The year 2000 marked the approval by the United States of the first two herbicide-resistant GM rice varieties called LLRice60 and LLRice62 [ 9 ]. Subsequently, GM rice varieties resistant to herbicides, including these and others, received official approval in Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Colombia. Nevertheless, the granting of these approvals did not lead to their commercialization [ 10 ]. In 2009, it was reported that China had authorized the biosafety of GM rice engineered to resist pests; however, that particular strain was not brought into commercial production [ 11 ]. Both Canada and the United States granted approval for the cultivation of genetically modified golden rice in 2018. Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration affirmed its safety for consumption [ 12 ]. According to the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center, as of 2021, China had successfully cultivated salt-tolerant “seawater” rice on approximately 990,000 acres of land with salt levels of up to 4 g per kilogram [ 13 ]. As mentioned previously, while GM rice has been developed and accepted in some countries, it has not yet been accepted and commercialized in many others. One possible cause is that GM rice is new, different, and unknown, and people’s uneasiness about side effects may be an obstacle. Political issues are another concern for the commercialization of GM rice. Thus, the prospects for GM rice are expected to flourish, unless it is met by some issues. As GM rice varieties continue to be improved, it is now being grown in the fields of many countries.

The application of new genome-editing breeding technologies has significantly expanded the possibilities for crop improvement in rice. In recent years, various genome-editing techniques, including CRISPR-directed evolution, CRISPR-Cas9, and base editors, have emerged as powerful tools for efficient and precise genome modifications in rice. The suitability of rice as a model system for functional studies, its small genome size, and close syntenic relationships with other cereal crops have further accelerated the development and implementation of novel genome-editing technologies in rice [ 14 ]. Researchers continue to innovate and refine these technologies specifically tailored for rice, allowing for targeted genetic modifications to improve desired traits [ 15 ]. By harnessing the power of these emerging technologies, researchers can unlock the full potential of rice as a vital crop, contributing to global food security and sustainable agriculture.

Grain production in 2021/2022 adapted and modified from http://igc.int/en/gmr_summary.aspx [ 16 ] accessed on 5 July 2023.

Global population growth since 1955 adapted and modified from https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population-dashboard [ 17 ] accessed on 9 April 2023.

2. A Potential Solution to Hunger

Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015 [ 18 ]. It is known as “Zero Hunger,” and seeks to eradicate hunger and malnutrition by ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all people [ 18 ]. It emphasizes sustainable agricultural practices, investment in rural development, and improved food production systems [ 18 ]. SDG 2 highlights the need for resilient and equitable food systems that adapt to climate change, protect biodiversity, and address all forms of malnutrition [ 18 ]. Achieving zero hunger is crucial for attaining broader sustainable development goals [ 18 ].

2.1. Increasing the Grain Size of Rice

A group of researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have been studying a quantitative trait locus (QTL) that controls several aspects of rice growth, including weight, hull size, yield, and plant biomass [ 19 ]. Nippon bare (Nipp, japonica rice variety) has a smaller plant body and a more rounded rice shape than Kasalath (Kasa, indica rice variety). Conversely, the seeds of Kasalath have an elongated grain shape. This difference in rice shape suggests the existence of a gene that determines rice shape. They employed a QTL detection method to examine backcrossed inbred lines derived from crosses between the Kasalath and Nippon bare to isolate QTLs for grain weight [ 19 ]. Their analysis led them to identify a specific QTL called grain weight on chromosome 6 (GW6) among the 12 chromosomes of rice, which was amplified by the Kasa allele. They then used a chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL29) that contained an introgression of the Kasa region in the Nipp genetic background [ 19 ]. This resulted in a substantial increase in grain weight and brown grain (by 20.6% and 11.2%, respectively), with CSSL29 weighing the same as Nipp ( p < 0.001) ( Figure 3 ) [ 19 , 20 ]. The use of GW6a genes in breeding is expected to increase rice yield. Genes controlling important agronomic traits, such as yield-increasing genes found in rice, can be efficiently used in rice breeding through crosses and molecular markers without genetic modification. In fact, we are working on breeding useful rice varieties using the GW6a gene together with yield-enhancing genes that have been identified so far, such as the WFP gene, which raises the number of ear branches, and the Gn1a gene, which increases the number of seeds [ 20 ]. Rice has the smallest genome size among these cereals (rice genome size is 400 Mb (about 400 million base pairs), and maize has 8 times, barley 12 times, and wheat 40 times the genome of rice). Rice is positioned as a major cereal grain and a model plant for monocotyledonous plants because transformation technology has been established and the entire genome sequence has been decoded. Furthermore, rice belongs to the same ancestral family as other important cereal crops such as maize, wheat, and barley, and they share a similar genome structure. In other words, these cereal crops derived from the same ancestor retain the same gene set. This makes it possible to apply the results of rice research not only to rice but also to the breeding of other cereal crops. For these reasons, the identification of important genes related to rice productivity is expected to be a breakthrough toward a stable food supply for humankind [ 20 ].

Grain phenotypes ( left ) and weight ( right ) of the QTL cloning at GW6a. The asterisk (***) represented significantly different value from Nipp control, p < 0.05. Modified from Song et al., 2015 [ 21 ].

2.2. Increasing the Yield of Rice

Genetically modified rice was developed to reduce pesticide usage, labor, and costs in cultivation [ 22 ]. This is accomplished by introducing genetic traits that provide biotic stress management, such as pest resistance or herbicide tolerance, minimizing the need for extensive pesticide applications. This reduction in pesticide usage offers multiple benefits, including a greater quantity of quality grains and simplified cultivation processes, leading to cost and labor savings [ 22 ]. Bacillus thuringiensis rice (BT rice) and Liberty Link rice are genetically modified varieties that have been developed to address specific pest-related challenges in rice cultivation [ 23 ].

By transferring genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into the rice genome, genetically modified BT rice can be resistant against lepidopteran pest (e.g., rice stem borers) damage and thus decrease the amount of insecticide use [ 24 ]. When BT rice is cultivated without the use of pesticides, it has a potential to increase crop yield up to 60% more when compared to the conventional rice [ 18 , 20 ].

Liberty Link rice is genetically modified to tolerate the herbicide glufosinate [ 25 ]. Weeds compete with rice plants for resources and can significantly reduce yields if left uncontrolled [ 25 ]. By using glufosinate herbicide, farmers can selectively eliminate weeds, thereby improving rice crop productivity. The modification involves introducing a specific gene into the rice plant’s genome, which enables it to produce an enzyme called phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) [ 26 ]. The gene responsible for producing PAT is derived from the bacterium Streptomyces viridochromogenes . This bacterial gene is inserted into the rice plant’s DNA, typically using a method called Agrobacterium-mediated transformation or gene gun technology [ 26 ]. Once the Liberty Link rice plants have been genetically modified, they are capable of synthesizing the PAT enzyme [ 26 ]. The PAT enzyme plays a crucial role in the tolerance mechanism by acetylating and inactivating glufosinate herbicide within the rice plant’s tissues. This allows the rice plant to withstand the herbicide’s effects while effectively controlling weeds in the surrounding field [ 26 ]. The biotic transgenic approaches for stress management in rice are summarized in Table 1 .

Representative approaches of transgenic rice breeding for biotic stress tolerance.

A research group led by the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules, Nagoya University (WPI-ITbM), the Graduate School of Science, and the School of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, has developed a technology to simultaneously increase nutrient absorption in rice roots and stomatal opening by increasing one rice gene cell membrane proton pump and succeeded in increasing rice yields in open paddy fields by more than 30% [ 33 ]. Plants grow by absorbing inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from their roots while taking in carbon dioxide through the stomatal opening of their leaves and performing photosynthesis [ 34 , 35 ]. Through photosynthesis, plants not only provide us with agricultural products, but they also absorb carbon dioxide and help maintain the global environment photosynthesis [ 34 , 35 ]. The only carbon dioxide uptake ports in plants are the stomates on the plant’s surface photosynthesis [ 34 , 35 ]. It is also known that nutrient absorption by the roots plays an essential role in growth [ 33 ]. Therefore, if the stomates opening can be increased, and at the same time, nutrient absorption from the roots can be promoted and photosynthesis can be enhanced, plant growth and yield can be increased, and carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, and fertilizers, which cause environmental pollution, can be reduced. However, no technology has been reported to simultaneously increase stomatal opening and nutrient absorption by roots [ 33 ].

Their research revealed that plasma membrane proton pumps play a common and significant role in inorganic nutrient uptake in roots and stomatal opening in leaves [ 36 ]. Therefore, they generated overexpression rice plants with increased expression of one plasma membrane proton pump gene, OSA1 ( Oryza sativa plasma membrane H+-ATPase1), and analyzed the phenotypes [ 21 , 24 ]. They found that inorganic nutrient absorption, such as nitrogen, in the roots of rice plants overexpressing the proton pump was increased by more than 20% and the percentage of light-opened pores was increased by more than 25% compared to the wild-type plants [ 33 ]. The overexpression of a specific gene in rice, OSA1, was observed to improve the absorption and assimilation of inorganic nutrients such as ammonium in the roots, as well as enhance stomatal opening and photosynthesis rate in the leaves under light exposure [ 33 ]. Further detailed analysis revealed that carbon dioxide fixation (photosynthetic activity) was increased by more than 25% in rice plants overexpressing the proton pump, and the dry weight (biomass) was increased by 18–33% in hydroponic cultivation in the laboratory [ 33 ]. In order to determine whether the technology is effective in the field environment, they conducted a two-year yield evaluation test in four different isolated paddy field plots and found that rice yield increased by more than 30% compared to wild rice plants [ 33 ].

In recent years, cloning research has enabled the identification of several underlying QTLs involved in grain weight. Notable examples include the transmembrane protein GS [ 37 , 38 ], the GS3 homolog DEP1 [ 39 ], the Kelch-like domain Ser/Thr phosphatase GL3.1 (also known as OsPPKL1) [ 40 , 41 ], the RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase GW2 (grain width and weight 2) [ 42 ], the arginine-rich domain nuclear protein qSW5/GW5 [ 43 , 44 ], the putative serine carboxypeptidase GS5 [ 45 ], the SBP domain transcription factor GW8 (OsSPL16) [ 46 ], and the recently discovered IAA-glucose hydrolase protein TGW6 [ 47 ]. The use of advanced genomic tools and techniques has significantly transformed agriculture and revolutionized the development of food crop varieties.

2.3. Enhancing the Nutrient Content of Rice Grains

Enhancing the nutritive value of rice grains.

Golden rice was developed in the 1990s to help improve human health [ 48 ]. Rice is a good source of vitamin B (thiamin and niacin) but is poor in pre-vitamin A [ 48 ]. Golden rice was genetically modified to be a fortified food grown and consumed in developing countries where vitamin A intake is deficient [ 48 ]. During the 1990s, Peter Bramley made a significant discovery regarding the production of lycopene in genetically modified tomatoes. He found that instead of introducing multiple carotene desaturases typically found in higher plants, a single gene encoding phytoene desaturase (bacterial CrtI ) could fulfill the role [ 49 ]. This technique was subsequently applied in the development of Golden Rice, which involved the incorporation of two genes (psy—phytoene synthase, lyc—lycopene β -cyclase) from Narcissus (daffodils) and one gene (crtl) from Erwinia uredovora ( Figure 4 ) [ 50 ]. Lycopene (Beta-carotene) is assumed to be converted to retinal and subsequently retinol (vitamin A) in the animal gut [ 51 ]. In 2009, the results of a clinical trial of golden rice in adult volunteers in the United States were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . The trial concluded that “beta-carotene from golden rice is efficiently converted to vitamin A in humans [ 52 ]”. The American Society of Nutrition found that the consumption of about one cup of golden rice daily probably provides 50% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of the nutritional requirement of vitamin A and that this amount is within the consumption habits of most young children and their mothers [ 52 ].

The Golden Rice solution. Modified from Saini et al., 2020 [ 50 ].

The content of seed storage proteins (SSPs), amino acids, fats, vitamins, and other micronutrients determines the nutritional quality of rice grains. Cereals are deficient in several essential amino acids such as lysine, threonine, and tryptophan. Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) is a method of evaluating the quality of a protein based on both the amino acid requirements of humans and their ability to digest it. One experiment was conducted to determine the digestibility-corrected amino acid score (DCAAS) from some cereals. In this experiment, in which rats were fed cooked cereals, DIAAS data were obtained as 42 for brown rice, 37 for polished rice, 68 for buckwheat, 43 for oats, 20 for whole wheat, 13 for Adlay, and 20 for whole wheat ( Table 2 ) [ 53 , 54 ].

Digestible indispensable amino acid scores (DIAAS) for brown rice, polished rice, buckwheat, oats, Adlay, and whole wheat [ 54 ].

Footnote: Indispensable AA reference patterns are expressed as mg AA/kg protein: His, 16; Ile, 30; Leu, 61; Lys, 48; sulfur AA, 23; aromatic AA, 41; Thr, 25; Trp, 6·6; Val, 40 [ 55 ].

Certain essential amino acids such as lysine (Lys) and sulfur AA (SAA) are missing in rice grains [ 56 ]. Therefore, improving the nutritional quality of SSPs is important worldwide, especially for people in regions where rice is a staple food. Research groups have attempted different approaches to improve protein and essential amino acid levels in rice via transgenic engineering, including the expression of AmA1 seed albumin [ 57 ], the overexpression of aspartate aminotransferase genes [ 58 ], the transfer of two artificially synthesized genes [ 59 ], and the production of genetically engineered rice [ 60 ].

The incorporation of the ferritin gene from common beans into rice has been made possible by transgenic approaches [ 61 ]. Similarly, Khalekuzzaman et al. [ 62 ] introduced the ferritin gene, driven by an endosperm-specific glutelin promoter, and found increased iron (Fe) concentrations in brown and polished seeds of T1 and T2 populations of the cultivar, BRRl Dhan 29 (BR29), when compared with controls. In addition, Johnson et al. [ 63 ] recorded a twofold increase in Fe and Zinc (Zn) concentrations in polished rice that overexpressed single rice OsNAS genes ( Table 3 ). Researchers have also developed “golden rice”, which is rich in β-carotene, by the introgression of two genes, namely, phytoene synthase and phytoene desaturase [ 64 ]. These approaches have some limitations in that they are time-consuming, involve the introduction of foreign DNA, may produce off-target genome modifications, may associate undesirable traits with target attributes, and are inefficient, making them a difficult option for researchers. However, improving rice grain nutritional quality using the CRISPR/Cas9 system may address these issues [ 53 ].

Baseline and target grain Fe and Zn concentrations in rice [ 61 ].

3. Potential Health Benefits

3.1. bioactive compounds.

Rice is rich in nutrients such as carbohydrates, fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals [ 65 ] ( Table 4 ). In addition to nutritional components, rice contains bioactive components known as phytochemicals, such as phenolic compounds (e.g., campesterol and caffeic acid), flavonoids (anthocyanin and proanthocyanin), γ-oryzanol, carotenoids (e.g., α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, and lutein), phytosterols (e.g., β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, and campesterol), vitamin E isoforms (α-, γ-, δ-tocopherols and tocotrienols), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), phytic acid, coumaric acid, and tricin [ 23 , 65 ]. These bioactive components have a variety of biological activities, the most significant of which are antioxidant, anticancer, anti-diabetic, and anti-inflammatory [ 23 ]. The potential health benefits are exhibited in humans as they consume rice as part of their routine daily diet [ 65 ]. One study conducted in China showed that when compared to wheat preference, rice preference was associated with a lower risk of excessive body fat in men and a lower risk of central obesity in women [ 66 ].

Nutritional composition of brown rice and milled rice [ 67 ].

3.2. Antioxidant Activity

Antioxidants protect against oxidative damage and help to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes [ 58 , 68 , 69 ]. The vitamin E content found in rice can promote antioxidant activity. Pigmented rice varieties such as black, purple, red, and brown rice contain anthocyanins, the phytochemical responsible for the deep purple and red color in plants like berries and grapes that promote antioxidant activity. Antioxidants like anthocyanins have been associated with a protective factor against some cancers. A study showed a dose-dependent decrease in the size and number of aberrant crypt foci formed and β-catenin expression in rats fed a crude extract of germinated rice [ 70 ]. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is another bioactive compound found in rice. The GABA contents of germinated brown rice were shown to have inhibitory effects on the reproduction of some cancer cells as well as increased stimulation of immune response [ 20 , 65 ]. GABA is known to improve hypertension, memory impairment, hypo-motivation, and sleep disturbance by suppressing noradrenaline secretion in the periphery, inhibiting excitation of the whole brain through afferent neurotransmission, stimulating cerebral blood flow, increasing oxygen supply, and enhancing the metabolic function of brain cells [ 71 ]. In a mouse model of type 2 diabetes induced by a high-calorie diet, elevated total and LDL cholesterol levels and decreased adiponectin levels were observed in the blood. To clarify the active ingredient, GABA, which is abundant in the germ extract, was orally administered, and a significant increase in blood adiponectin level was observed with GABA. As mentioned above, inhibitory nerves are likely involved in the GABA mechanism of action. Since the blood adiponectin level generally decreases in humans and mice under stress, the administration of GABA may alleviate stress, resulting in an increase in blood adiponectin level [ 71 ].

3.3. Anti-Diabetic Activity

Metabolic improvements associated with germinated brown rice can be helpful in the management of type 2 diabetes. These improvements include better glycemic control, reduced type 1 tissue plasminogen, amelioration of oxidative stress, correction of dyslipidemia, and increased activity of sodium–potassium adenosine triphosphatase and homocysteine thioacetone [ 72 ]. Using an open-labeled, randomized, cross-over study design, researchers observed that there was a significant decrease in postprandial plasma glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and lactalbumin levels in patients who ate brown rice two times a day when compared with those who ate white rice. ( Figure 5 ) These effects are due to the rich bioactive content such as dietary fiber found in brown rice [ 73 ].

Levels of HbA1c (mean ± SD) at baseline, 4th, and 12th weeks in individuals with type 2 diabetes following a brown rice-based vegan or conventional diet.

Furthermore, one study reported that a diet composed of GABA-rich germinated brown rice and white rice did not produce significant changes in most metabolic indices in healthy individuals. Using 67 healthy volunteers (71 ± 8 aged), the effects of white rice and germinated brown rice + white rice (1:1, w / w ) were determined following consumption for 11–13 months. There was only a significant decrease in HbA1c in the germinated brown rice + white rice group, but no differences were noted in body mass index, blood pressure, serum lipids, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance between the two groups [ 74 ]. Germination of brown rice is one of the ways to increase the bioactive concentration in order to enhance the functional effect. Although it is not yet clear which bioactive substances are responsible for the functional effects of sprouted brown rice, several bioactive substances may contribute to the observed effects: fiber in the GBR is known to lower blood glucose levels by regulating glucose absorption in the intestine [ 74 ]. The influence of GABA receptors in pancreatic islets contributes to decreased insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes, and GABA supplementation has been reported to increase insulin secretion. This may explain the reduction in blood glucose levels in diabetes caused by GABA [ 74 ].

3.4. Anti-Inflammatory Activity

One study concluded that a brown rice diet may be useful to decrease inflammatory marker levels [ 75 ]. In that study, overweight or obese women who followed a diet including brown rice had lower diastolic blood pressure and levels of the inflammatory marker hs-CRP compared to those who followed a diet without brown rice [ 75 ]. Additionally, incorporating brown rice into the diet can be a beneficial strategy for achieving significant weight loss and reducing visceral obesity.

A significant mechanism of immune pathogenesis is inflammation, which is our body’s response to tissue infection, injury, or stress. Some reports have shown that lipophilic phytochemicals, such as γ-oryzanol and vitamin E derivatives contained in pigmented rice germ and bran, may possess anti-inflammatory activity [ 61 ]. Another study reported that pigmented rice contains large amounts of medium polar or hydrophilic compounds, such as phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, proanthocyanins, and bioflavonoids, which show anti-inflammatory activity in both in vitro and in vivo models [ 76 ].

4. Addressing Climate Change

Climate change is a pending issue for global food security, and there is a need to develop climate-resilient rice that can grow even in adverse environments. Breeding climate-resilient rice is essential to ensure food security in the face of increasingly severe climate change [ 77 ]. Strategies to cope with climate stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, and flood tolerance are summarized in Table 5 .

Approaches to abiotic stress tolerance in rice.

The biofortification of rice is intended as a sustainable, cost-effective, and food-based means of delivering target micronutrients such as iron, zinc, and vitamin A to populations who do not have access to or cannot afford diverse diets and other existing interventions such as supplementation. A few updates on previous attempts by researchers/scientific workers and the outcomes of biofortified rice approaches are depicted in Table 6 .

Breeding approaches on biofortification in rice.

Climate change has a significant impact on agriculture, while agriculture itself plays a crucial role as a contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Total emissions on agricultural land in 2020 amounted to 10.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2eq) of GHG released into the atmosphere [ 90 ]. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions consist of non-CO2 gases, namely, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) produced by crop and livestock production and management activities, CO2 emissions by sources and sink from forestland, net forest conversion and drained organic soils, and non-CO2 emissions from forest fires and fires in organic soils [ 90 ].

A main source of GHG comes from the enteric fermentation of livestock ( Figure 6 ), while methane released from rice cultivation accounts for 12 percent [ 58 , 59 ]. Hence, it is necessary to develop approaches that local farmers can easily implement in order to decrease GHG emissions from rice paddy fields.

FAO 2020, greenhouse gas emissions by activities [ 90 ].

The mechanism of methanogenesis in paddy fields is as follows. In a flooded paddy field, immediately after rice planting, the soil still contains a lot of oxygen; therefore, methanogenic bacteria, which cannot work in the presence of oxygen, do not generate CH4. However, as the rice plants begin to take in oxygen for respiration, the amount of oxygen in the soil gradually decreases. Within a month after rice planting, the soil becomes depleted of oxygen, and methanogenic bacteria begin to actively emit CH4. By that time, the rice stalks increase in number, and these stalks act as chimneys, releasing CH4 into the atmosphere.

In order to reduce these emissions, alternative water-management strategies have been tested. Japanese researchers measured the CH4 and N2O emissions and recorded the effects of different water-management strategies such as midseason drainage (MD) [ 91 ]. MD is a technique used by farmers to temporarily remove water from rice paddies to adjust the growth of the rice plants and keep the roots healthy. This allows the soil to dry out to the point that the surface cracks and the air is allowed to permeate the soil. This drying-out process leaves the soil rich in oxygen and suppresses the activity of methanogenic bacteria. MD is also beneficial for rice because the roots of rice prefer to have a lot of oxygen. If water is kept deep in the paddy field all the time, the rice plants may also become unhealthy due to a lack of oxygen to the roots. When compared with conventional water-management strategies, selected alternative water-management strategies show that the seasonal CH4 emissions and the net 100-year global warming potential (GWP) (CH4 + N2O) can be suppressed to 69.5 ± 3.4% (SE) and 72.0 ± 3.1%, respectively, while maintaining grain yields as high as 96.2 ± 2.0%, by prolonging MD for a total of two weeks on average ( Figure 7 ) [ 91 ]. Another experiment showed that the addition of a single transcription factor gene, barley SUSIBA2 (Sugar Signaling in Barley 2), favored the allocation of photosynthates to aboveground biomass over-allocation to the roots [ 92 ]. The altered allocation resulted in increased biomass and starch content in the seeds and stems and suppressed methanogenesis, possibly through a reduction in root exudates [ 92 ]. Three-year field trials in China demonstrated that the cultivation of SUSIBA2 rice was associated with a significant reduction in methane emissions and a decrease in rhizosphere methanogen levels. SUSIBA2 rice, therefore, offers a sustainable solution, providing increased starch content for food production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation. In a future climate with rising temperatures, efforts to increase SUSIBA2 rice productivity and reduce methane emissions may be particularly beneficial [ 92 ].

The CH4 emissions of SUSIBA2 rice and wild-type rice in paddies during natural growing seasons [ 93 ].

5. Implications, Limitations, and Future Research

GM rice has the potential to revolutionize agriculture and food security by offering increased nutritional content, resistance to pests and diseases, and tolerance to environmental stresses. GM rice can improve human health and well-being, particularly in impoverished regions with prevalent malnutrition. It can also mitigate challenges posed by pests, diseases, and environmental factors, enhancing crop resilience and yield stability, particularly in the face of climate change.

However, to fully harness the potential of GM rice, further research is necessary. This includes studying the long-term effects of bioengineered varieties on human health, the environment, and biodiversity. Collaboration among researchers, regulatory bodies, farmers, and other stakeholders is crucial to ensure safety, effectiveness, and proper implementation. Responsible implementation of GM rice also entails addressing ethical, social, and economic considerations. Assessing potential risks, ensuring transparency, and engaging in open dialogue with the public are essential elements. Equitable access to GM rice technologies should be promoted, particularly for smallholder farmers in developing countries who can benefit from improved crop productivity and resilience.

In conclusion, the future implications of GM rice hold immense promise. However-er, further research, collaboration, and responsible implementation are vital to fully realize its potential. By addressing global challenges in agriculture, nutrition, and sustainability, GM rice can contribute to a more secure and resilient food system, benefitting both human well-being and the environment.

6. Conclusions

To meet the evolving living standards of the expanding world population, it is crucial to consistently enhance the quality of rice. GM rice holds the potential to address this need by increasing crop yield, improving nutritional value, and ensuring food safety. Moreover, genetic modifications in rice offer a promising solution to global hunger and malnutrition issues, while also safeguarding the environment. By implementing GM rice, we can mitigate the impact of climate change through water-management techniques, reduced methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and a slowdown of global warming. Although solving hunger and climate change is challenging, the advancements in the genetic engineering of rice demonstrate promise and potential.

Funding Statement

This work was financially supported in part by the USDA-NIFA Cooperative Project KS18HA1012 (W.W.) and Contribution No. 23-258-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

Author Contributions

K.K. wrote and edited the original manuscript. X.W. edited the manuscript. W.W. wrote and edited the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Golden Rice is part of the solution

Rice and prejudice, investigative paper published in the medical research archives journal.

On 29 February 2024, the following paper concerning Golden Rice was published by the European Society of Medicine:

“Prejudice, against GMO crops and Golden Rice, in US Academia drove unethical behaviour, with global and detrimental consequences for vitamin A deficiency alleviation”

Author: Dr A C Dubock [email protected] Executive Secretary, Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, Switzerland

In 2015, Tang et al 2012 was retracted. The paper concerned human research, relevant to public health, conducted in China in 2008. Retraction represents the most severe criticism of a scientific article. This article recounts events over a four-year period and challenges the justification for retraction based on the Committee on Publication Ethics principles.

This research focuses on analysing contemporary (2012–2015) documentary evidence, organised by key narrative participants: Greenpeace, the Chinese Government, Tufts University, the American Society for Nutrition, the US National Institutes of Health, and the US Office for Human Research Protections.

The analysis indicates that technological bias within a university and a learned society, which is also a publisher, led to unethical behaviour and the subsequent retraction. In the USA, oversight of an Institutional Review Board falls under the Office for Human Research Protections. Despite being the principal funder, the NIH's reliance on this office for the retracted paper's research to be publicly available, suggests ineffective oversight.

The retracted paper detailed a crucial nutritional study relevant to combating vitamin A deficiency, a significant cause of child mortality and blindness in low- and middle-income countries. The retraction likely heightened suspicion around this vital public health intervention.

Recommendations are made which are designed to partially ameliorate the injustices perpetrated.

The full paper can be accessed by clicking the following link: Dubock article .

And the documents referenced in the text can be accessed by clicking the following link: Support material .

The Recommendations

• The retraction of Tang et al 2012 should be rescinded by ASN for the same reasons given by KMK Vice President for Publications, ASN when she threatened Dr Tang and her co-authors on December 5 2013 (Online Resource 6): “to maintain the ethical standards of AJCN and to ensure the integrity of the scientific record.”
• Tufts University should repay Dr Tang the salary not paid in 2014, should properly consider her application for promotion to Professor withheld in 2013 and back date her pay due between then and now, and compensate her for unfair dismissal associated with this case.
• The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention should reinstate the professional status of Yin Shi'an and repay lost income, and compensate for unfair treatment
• The Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences should reinstate the professional status of Wang Yin and repay lost income, and compensate for unfair treatment
• The Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention should reinstate the professional status of Hu Yuming and repay lost income, and compensate for unfair treatment
• To prevent further miscarriages of justice, Human Health Services of the US National Institutes of Health, should review their Office for Human Research Protections processes used to review supportable challenges to Institutional Review Board decisions.

Comments on the Recommendations by the responsible institutions

A few hours after publication on Friday March 1st the abstract and links above were e mailed individually to the President and to the Chief Executive of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), to the Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) , and to another senior editor of the AJCN (who was the Editor in Chief during 2012- 2015), The President of Tufts University, and also to the immediate Past President of Tufts University (who was President of the University 2012- 2015), to the Chief of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP), and to the Director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) .

On Wednesday March 5 - 4 days ago at the time of writing - comments were invited from:

• ASN (copied to both AJCN editors) relating to Recommendation 1,
• Tufts University President (copied to the Past President), relating to Recommendation 2
• The CCDCP chief relating to Recommendations 3, 4 and 5
• The Director of NIH relating to Recommendation 6.

Comments were requested by Friday March 8 midnight (CET). We said that we would record these requests and also post ‘verbatim’ any comments received on this, our website. (Comments were requested to be less than 210 words – the same as the Abstract.)

No comments have been received.

Allow Golden Rice to save lives

An Opinion paper by Felicia Wu and colleagues, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) in December 2021, notes that 20 years after Golden Rice was first obtained by Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer, the tragedy we face is that this brilliant scientific success is opaqued by regulatory delays that have only led to a perpetuation of immense grief and huge losses in terms of preventable deaths, with no reported apparent benefits to consumers or the environment brought about by the overprecautionary stance of the authorities involved in the decision-making process. The urgency of getting Golden Rice approved has become more apparent, and even more urgent, with the ongoing pandemic, which has made access to healthcare services more difficult in vulnerable populations worldwide.

The World Bank recommends that micronutrient biofortification of staple crops, including specifically Golden Rice, should be the norm and not the exception in crop breeding. Golden Rice can effectively control vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and its deadly consequences, especially for children. Delaying the uptake of a genetically modified product shown to have clear health benefits has and will cost numerous lives, frequently of the most vulnerable individuals. VAD has cost more lives than the current pandemic already! Policymakers must find ways to overcome this resistance and accelerate the introduction and adoption of Golden Rice.

Link to opinion paper at PNAS (or as PDF )

In the 1990s, between 23–34% of children under 5 deaths in the world were VAD related. Progress against the UN Millennium Development Goals brought down this number to about 2% of all deaths attributed to VAD. This was achieved by a combination of mass vaccination programs against measles, better access to clean water, and vitamin A supplementation, along with economic development and education about diet reducing food insecurity. With community health programs having been adversely affected by the pandemic there is an imminent danger that VAD related deaths might climb again toward 1990s levels. It is under such circumstances that adoption of biofortified crops like Golden Rice can show their greatest potential as a safe, culturally simple and economically sustainable amelioration due to the simple facts that smallholders can grow and multiply their own biofortied crops and that such crops can vastly reduce the need for supplementation campaigns requiring recurring assembly of a costly labour and travel infrastructure to reach all those in need in the most remote areas. This current situation and possible solutions are discussed in another article by Dubock et al entitled “Golden Rice, VAD, Covid and Public Health: Saving Lives and Money” (Link to publisher IntechOpen or to PDF ).

Massive production of 'Golden Rice' seeds to start this year

Biotechnology to contribute to agriculture in the philippines.

The Presidential Communications office in the Philippines has announced that 2022 marks the start of massive production of Golden Rice seed, as well as Golden Rice for consumption, focusing on the vitamin A deficient provinces. Thus, Golden Rice spearheads the country's regional leadership in recognising biotechnology as a “powerful force to feed the future”, thereby establishing leadership in nutritional security, sustainability, agricultural productivity and economic growth. Golden Rice will be promoted as part of the Philippines Plan of Action for Nutrition. Golden Rice also featured prominently in the recent opening of the Crop Biotechnology Centre of the Philippines, by Department of Agriculture Secretary, Dr William Dar. The Philippines National Seed Industry Council has adopted a unified policy for the varietal registration of all genetically modified crops, saving the costs and time of unnecessary duplication of development work.

Commercial Propagation Permit for Golden Rice signed off in the Philippines

Philippines becomes first country to approve golden rice for planting.

Note: Commercial in this context means that rice carrying the Golden Rice trait for provitamin A production may be sold freely, which does not imply that there will be any extra cost attached to the trait itself, as this is prohibited by the agreement under which such varieties are licensed, according to the terms of donation by the creators of Golden Rice. Also, smallholders will be allowed to produce their seed without restrictions.

As of 21 July 2021, the Director of the Philippines Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industries (DA-BPI) signed off on the Commercial Propagation Permit for Golden Rice in the Philippines.

You can read about this widely publicised event in many local and international news releases:

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) : "Philippines becomes first country to approve nutrient-enriched Golden Rice for planting" . Filipino farmers will become the first in the world to be able to cultivate a variety of rice enriched with nutrients to help reduce childhood malnutrition, after receiving the green light from regulators. Golden Rice was developed by the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to contain additional levels of beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. […]

PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute, Department of Agriculture): “Filipinos soon to plant and eat Golden Rice” . Filipino rice consumers are close to benefiting from a Vitamin A-infused rice with the approval of its commercial propagation permit.Dr. John C. de Leon, executive director of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice), announced that a biosafety permit for propagating the Golden Rice has been issued on July 21, 2021. […]

Zeit online (Germany): "Philippinen genehmigen gentechnisch veränderten goldenen Reis". Die Reissorte enthält Beta-Carotin – eine Vorstufe des Vitamins A. Ein Mangel daran ist in Entwicklungsländern oft Grund für Erblindungen bei Kindern. […]

Dhaka Tribune (Bangladesh): “Philippines becomes first country to approve Golden Rice for planting” . The Philippines on Friday approved commercial cultivation of vitamin A-rich Golden Rice, long touted as a partial remedy for childhood malnutrition. It comes at a time when scientists in Bangladesh expressed deep frustration over regulators’ delay in approving the variety in the country for nearly four years. […]

The Daily Star (Bangladesh): "Philippines’ approval of Vitamin-A enriched Golden Rice a positive for Bangladesh too" . The Department of Agriculture in Philippines has approved the release of Vitamin A-enriched "Golden Rice", clearing the way for it to be cultivated commercially in the country. […]

Statement by the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines

On the occasion of the approval of bt eggplant and golden rice.

The Department of Agriculture of the Philippines approved Bt eggplant for food, feed and processing, and Golden Rice for commercial propagation. On this auspicious occasion, the Academy of Science of the Philippines has congratulated the Institute of Plant Breeding, UP Los Baños, for its work on Bt eggplant, and PhilRice, the Department of Agriculture, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for their work on Golden Rice. The also congratulated the government regulatory system for the rigorous work of ensuring that these products were properly evaluated.

Golden Rice Biosafety Assessments Published

Bangladesh and the philippines leading the pack.

Golden Rice, created 20 years ago and intended as an additional intervention to combat vitamin A deficiency, is closer to being released for cultivation and human consumption in the Philippines and Bangladesh. Assessments of environmental and consumer safety, following detailed research over many years, have been submitted in applications to the corresponding authorities (more in the Regulatory section) . Separately, the efficiency of conversion of the beta-carotene provitamin A in Golden Rice to circulating vitamin A has been reported from human studies, proving that Golden Rice is an effective source of Vitamin A (Tang et al., 2009) .

Biosafety assessments involve the molecular characterisation of the introduced gene constructs and the biochemical characterisation of the improved crop plant, including a comparative compositional analysis of the biofortified Golden Rice against conventional white rice grains. The molecular characterisation involves analysing the integrity and stability of the inserted gene construct. The DNA sequence of the gene construct is also used to exclude the unintended creation of any novel gene products, including any potential allergens or toxins. Digestibility and heat stability of the gene products (proteins) determines the dietary exposure and allergenic potential of each. In our Publications section you will find four recent publications describing regulatory data generated (Swamy et al, 2019 & 2021; Biswas et al, 2021; Oliva et al, 2020) . Food and feed safety, agronomic performance and environmental interactions are reported. The reports involved collaboration of 30 scientist authors from four countries and six research institutions: the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in the USA, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), and the University of Freiburg in Germany.

Golden Rice event GR2E* has been crossbred with local rice varieties preferred by growers and consumers in Bangladesh and the Philippines. This gene construct, together with its surrounding DNA, is passed on from generation to generation through breeding programs, ensuring that its structure remains intact. The resulting breeding lines have been tested in multiple locations. 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.

An important finding from the reported research is that beta-carotene levels were around 11 micrograms per gram of grain, which is sufficient to deliver between 80 and 110 per cent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A for children and women, depending on their average rice consumption.

As a result of the donation of the technology from its creators Professors Potrykus and Beyer, and their agreements with the Government research institutes involved, the additional nutrition in Golden Rice is free of cost to growers or consumers: Golden Rice will cost no more than white rice.

*Many transformation events were produced ( Paine et al, 2005 ) from which event GR2E was selected based on molecular structure and insertion in the rice genome, together with agronomic performance. GR2E is the basis of the regulatory data generated and is the only form of Golden Rice which is offered for approval and use.

Attitudes and Influences relevant to Golden Rice’s potential use in the Philippines

Focussed group discussions and results from four different agro-economic zones of the philippines to understand attitudes and influences relevant to the adoption and use of golden rice conducted by aim students.

In late July 2008 Adrian Dubock approached The Asian Institute of Management, (‘AIM’) Manila, Philippines in connection with some Golden Rice marketing research planned for 2009. The idea was to involve Golden Rice Humanitarian Board member and Professor of Marketing, ‘JP’ Jeannet in providing a seminar for MBA students, at AIM, in consumer field research including focus group management and analysis, followed by about a month’s engagement for the trained students in conducting the focus groups and reporting back. Prof Ricardo Lim, Associate Dean of the W. Sycip Graduate School of Business at AIM kindly undertook to facilitate the request, which could form a component of course work and experience for the MBA students involved. Raul Boncodin of IRRI, and other IRRI colleagues, were closely involved in the subsequent organisation and management.

Nutrition and health go together

“……investing in the health and nutrition of vulnerable populations could lower the mortality rate of diseases such as covid-19 — as nutritional level and mortality rates are intricately linked.”.

Prof Fan Shenggen, former Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Chair of China Agricultural University proposes that to ensure food security in the Face of Covid-19, urgent action is needed:

• Governments need to strengthen market regulation to avoid panic, and guide growers to make rational planting decisions.
• National and international feed supply chains need to function normally, while allowing person-person contact to be minimised.
• Context specific cash or in-kind transfers, are urgently needed from Government, to protect the most vulnerable population members, and these need to continue for post-epidemic reconstruction efforts to be successful. Health and Nutrition officials need to increase their influence: improved health and nutrition of vulnerable populations could lower the mortality rate of diseases such as COVID-19, as nutritional level and mortality rates are intricately linked. [Golden Rice is a nutritional source of vitamin A. Vitamin A improves human immune response to disease – Editor]
• Contagious diseases such as Covid-19, Ebola, SARS, and Avian Flu do not respect national borders. Investment is needed in resilient food systems to allow all countries to prevent or contain the impact of food security crises they cause.
• Many, or all, of the above diseases originated in wildlife and jumped to humans. Regulation of meat, seafood and wildlife markets is essential.
• The smooth international trade in food products must continue uninterrupted by trade protectionist policies of any kind. Such uninterrupted food trade provides a safety buffer against localised shortages.

Adapted from Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD) , based on the original China Daily source .

Filipinos are First!

The philippines is the first asian country to approve golden rice for direct use, by adrian dubock, peter beyer & ingo potrykus.

December 2019

In a victory for science-based regulatory decision-making, the Government of the Philippines has, on 10th December 2019, authorised the direct use of GR2E Golden Rice in food, feed, and for processing. The regulatory data were submitted by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the spring of 2017 and were scrutinized by several regulatory committees representing agriculture, environment, health, science and technology, and local governments. This decision is huge, representing the first food approval for Golden Rice in a country where rice is the staple and vitamin A deficiency a significant public health problem. Those involved in the authorisation are to be praised for their scientific integrity and courage in the face of stiff activist opposition.

In taking their decision, the Philippine Government has joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA in affirming that Golden Rice is perfectly safe.

Unlike the industrialised countries, the Philippines is a country where rice is so important, that Pinoys (the Filipino people) do not consider any food to be a meal unless it is accompanied by rice. In 2018, per capita white rice consumption in the Philippines was 115 kg per annum —or 315 g daily (454 g = 1 lb), or more than 15-fold higher than in the USA.

Since the 1940s, the Philippine Government, at all levels, has pursued policies to deliver better health for its citizens. Nevertheless, the Philippines is a country where vitamin A deficiency (VAD) —which is globally the leading cause of child mortality and irreversible blindness— remains a significant public health problem.

The World Health Organization lists Philippine mothers as being moderately vitamin A deficient, and children less than 5 years old as being severely vitamin A deficient. This is despite, as reported in 2014, 85 percent of children consuming a vitamin-A rich food in the past day, and 76 percent of children receiving a vitamin A supplement in the past 6 months . Supplementation via Vitamin A capsule distribution in the Philippines has been in place since the early 1990s. Initially, the use of capsules was highly controversial. Globally, over the past 20 years, about 10 billion vitamin A capsules have been distributed to preschool children at a cost of about US$10 billion. In the Philippines, increasing standards of living, in combination with supplementation, reduced VAD incidence among preschool children from 40 percent in 2003 to 15 percent in 2008. By 2013, however, VAD incidence had increased again to 20 percent of preschool children, and 28 percent of children between 6 and 12 months old.

A universal source of vitamin A will reduce child mortality by 23–34 percent, and up to 50 percent in cases of measles, thanks to the immune-system-boosting effects of vitamin A. It is expected that adoption of Golden Rice —the golden colour beta-carotene is a source of vitamin A— into the regular diet will continue to reduce the incidence of VAD, and very sustainably: there is no extra cost for the additional nutrition, and no limitations on what small farmers can do with the seed. In the last month, a New Scientist article about Golden Rice commented: What shocks me is that some activists continue to misrepresent the truth about the rice. The cynic in me expects profit-driven multinationals to behave unethically, but I want to think that those voluntarily campaigning on issues they care about have higher standards .

Consistent with its commitment to public health, the Philippine authorities have ignored the misrepresentations and hyperbole around Golden Rice. Instead, they used their regulatory system and internationally accepted risk assessment principles (and their experience in assessing the safety of gmo crops , which are widely used in the Philippines) to carefully, and impartially, consider the data submitted by PhilRice and IRRI.

Children and women are dying and going blind as a result of vitamin A deficiency, despite existing interventions, and Golden Rice can assist. Even partial substitution of white rice consumption with Golden Rice — all grown in the Philippines by Philippine farmers — will combat VAD, and with no possibility of overdosing.

Before Golden Rice can be adopted by Filipino farmers, it will have to be approved for wide-scale propagation and receive varietal registration. Golden Rice field trials, already completed in both the Philippines and in Bangladesh —which share similar agro-ecosystems— have shown no cause for concern, so the outlook is very positive. Only following adoption of the publicly owned Golden Rice varieties, developed by PhilRice, into daily consumption, can Golden Rice start saving sight and lives , exactly as it was designed to do almost a quarter of a century ago.

Would you be deeply saddened if an airliner full of children crashed into the ground today?

How about two.

The equivalent of 13 jumbo jets full of children crashes into the ground every day and kills them all, because of vitamin A deficiency!!! Golden Rice has the potential to prevent all those deaths. Yet, Golden Rice lines developed by national scientists in countries where vitamin A is endemic are not given a green light by local authorities to be grown by those who would benefit most from those varieties, i.e., the poor families to which those dying children belong. And why is that the case? Simply because authorities are not prepared to face controversy generated by ill-guided activists and because the deaths of poor children do not seem to cause as much controversy, if any.

A recent opinion essay authored by the inventors and promoters of Golden Rice in Leapsmag reminds us of the senseless controversy that has stood in the way of Golden Rice helping reduce one of the main causes of children mortality on a global scale and brings us up to date regarding some positive developments on this front.

The essay, entitled "We pioneered a technology to save millions of poor children, but a worldwide smear campaign has blocked it" (click on the title to follow a link to the essay and the magazine).

Leapsmag is an editorially independent, award-winning online magazine that aims to foster a society-wide conversation about the impact of groundbreaking advances in the life sciences and related fields. Leapsmag publishes reported feature articles, commentary, personal essays, and interviews with innovators whose work stands to affect us all.

Golden Rice Named Among Project Management Institute’s Most Influential Projects of the Last 50 Years

Golden Rice is the first purposefully created biofortified food. Biofortified foods are increasingly being used to address global health issues. And are recommended as standard by the World Bank. Golden Rice, a source of vitamin A, is an additional intervention, and a disruptive technology, for use against vitamin A deficiency, a major public health issue and the most significant cause of child mortality and blindness globally.

7 October 2019 – The Golden Rice humanitarian project, announced today that it has been recognized in the top-10 Biotech Projects , as one of the most influential projects of the past 50 years by Project Management Institute (PMI) in its 2019 Most Influential Projects list. Golden Rice is the only plant-based biotech project listed, although it shares its health applications with the other nine in the list.

Additionally, PMI has released lists of the top 10 most influential projects across 14 categories in a variety of regions and industries, including a broadly-based biotechnology category. The final selections, made by PMI’s thought-leadership team, provide an inspirational reflection on what project work has enabled and the central role it has played in creating our present.

The lists are extremely eclectic, and it is gratifying to see Golden Rice recognised, in a process which the project had no input into.

The technology behind Golden Rice was donated to assist the resource poor of the world in 2000, by its inventors Professors Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer. Golden Rice is a not-for-profit project: no individual, nor organisation involved with its development, has any financial interest in the outcome. And, as a result of the terms of the donation by its inventors, and collaborations with Governments of countries where rice is the staple food and vitamin A deficiency endemic, Golden Rice will cost no more that the white rice variety into which the nutritional trait has been introduced.

Ingo Potrykus commented: “When starting this project in the early 90’s I was 56. Around 4,500 children a day die as a result of the ‘nutritionally acquired immune deficiency syndrome’ which is Vitamin A deficiency. Many more become blind. Now I am approaching my 86th birthday and Golden Rice is still not in the hands of those who need it so badly.

Now, though, everything is in place. The need for Golden Rice is clear, and it is registered as safe in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA. It is very clear it can make a huge contribution as an additional intervention for vitamin A deficiency, at no cost to growers or consumers. And it can contribute to attainment of Sustainable Development Goals 1,2,3,4,5 & 7.

Regulatory dossiers have been submitted in key developing countries. All that is now needed is for Public Health Professionals to overcome any scepticism caused by the anti-gmo activists’ activities over the past three decades and embrace Golden Rice.

Hopefully in my lifetime, you, and I, will start to see Golden Rice saving the sight and lives of some of the 3.5 billion people, half the world’s population, who consume rice, and often little else, every day.”

“This recognition reflects the incredible progress we have made in the project management profession and demonstrates how the fabric of our world has been shaped, and continues to be shaped, by the hard work of bringing ideas to life,” said Sunil Parashara, President and CEO of Project Management Institute. “This list demonstrates PMI’s vision of how excellence in project execution will be critical in meeting the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.”

The list is part of PMI’s 50th anniversary celebration that includes various activities to recognize the important role project management has played over the past five decades and celebrate where the profession is going.

The complete list of projects honoured can be found at this PMI link

The list of Honourees of the Golden Rice project recognised for their contributions in the PMI Award

About Project Management Institute (PMI)

Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession. Founded in 1969, PMI delivers value for more than three million professionals working in nearly every country in the world through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research. We advance careers, improve organizational success and further mature the project management profession through globally-recognized standards, certifications, communities, resources, tools, academic research, publications, professional development courses and networking opportunities. As part of the PMI family, ProjectManagement.com creates online global communities that deliver more resources, better tools, larger networks and broader perspectives. Visit us at PMI or Project Management , Facebook , and on Twitter @PMInstitute.

For more information about Golden Rice please refer to: Potrykus I (2014) From the concept of totipotency to biofortified cereals. Annual Review of Plant Biology 66(1):1-22 Dubock A (2019) Golden Rice: To Combat Vitamin A Deficiency for Public Health . DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.84445

Golden Rice: To Combat Vitamin A Deficiency for Public Health

Article by dr adrian dubock, member of the golden rice humanitarian board.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has been recognised as a significant public health problem continuously for more than 30 years, despite current interventions. The problem is particularly severe in populations where rice is the staple food and diversity of diet is limited, as white rice contains no micronutrients. Golden Rice is a public-sector product designed as an additional intervention for VAD. There will be no charge for the nutritional trait, which has been donated by its inventors for use in public-sector rice varieties to assist the resource poor, and no limitations on what small farmers can do with the crop—saving and replanting seed, selling seed and selling grain are all possible. Because Golden Rice had to be created by introducing two new genes—one from maize and the other from a very commonly ingested soil bacterium—it has taken a long time to get from the laboratory to the field. Now it has been formally registered as safe as food, feed, or in processed form by four industrialised countries, and applications are pending in developing countries. The data are summarised here, and criticisms addressed, for a public health professional audience: is it needed, will it work, is it safe and is it economic? Adoption of Golden Rice, the next step after in-country registration, requires strategic and tactical cooperation across professions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government departments often not used to working together. Public health professionals need to play a prominent role.

The full article can be accessed following this link to IntechOpen (From the Edited Volume «Vitamin A"» [Working title] Edited by Prof Leila Queiroz Zepka, Dr Eduardo Jacob-Lopes and Dr Veridiana Vera De Rosso; DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.84445)

Golden Rice: The Imperiled Birth of a GMO Superfood

A book by ed regis.

Supporters claim that the twenty-year delay in Golden Rice's introduction is an unconscionable crime against humanity. Critics have countered that the rice is a "hoax," that it is "fool's gold" and "propaganda for the genetic engineering industry." Here, science writer Ed Regis argues that Golden Rice is the world's most controversial, maligned, and misunderstood GMO. Regis tells the story of how the development, growth, and distribution of Golden Rice was delayed and repeatedly derailed by a complex but outdated set of operational guidelines and regulations imposed by the governments and sabotaged by anti-GMO activists in the very nations where the rice is most needed.

Writing in a conversational style, Regis separates hyperbole from facts, overturning the myths, distortions, and urban legends about this uniquely promising superfood. Anyone interested in GMOs, social justice, or world hunger will find Golden Rice a compelling, sad, and maddening true-life science tale.

Available from Amazon

ISBN-13: 978-1421433035 ISBN-10: 1421433036

And this is what Ingo Potrykus, one of the creators of Golden Rice had to tell to the author of the book: “I am half way through your book and I can’t wait to the end to tell you, how excited I am. It is simply excellent !!! Wonderful that you have devoted your talent and efforts to tell the public in such a clear presentation, what stands in the way of an important humanitarian project just because it is a GMO project.”

Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Sir richard roberts talks about gm crops.

Sir Rich Roberts, FRS, organized an open letter from fellow Nobel Laureates to Greenpeace, the UN and the Governments of the World, decrying their unscientific treatment of GMO-crops. Two years later, in June 2018, Dr Roberts talked about his views at the 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting with Young Scientists, Germany.

Sir Rich: “At the meeting I described the Nobel Laureates campaign in favor of GMOs. Examples of the benefits of the new GM technology for citizens of the developing world include Golden Rice and halting both Banana Wilt and the Fall Army Worm.

For biofortification alone GMO technology can deliver high folate rice (mothers’ dietary deficiency causes birth defects), high zinc and high iron rice (dietary deficiency impedes mental development). Similarly, GMO Golden Rice provides a source of vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency is an immune deficiency syndrome, so children die of common infections. It is also the main cause of irreversible childhood blindness. Golden Rice has been accepted as safe for consumption by the Governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA, and registrations have been applied for in Philippines and Bangladesh. Yet, significantly due to rejection of science by activists, Golden Rice is not yet available to farmers and their communities as an additional intervention for vitamin A deficiency. And neither high folate rice, nor high iron rice, nor high zinc rice, nor Golden Rice could be developed without the use of GMO-technology.

Millions of people can benefit from the use of GMO-technology in plant breeding, it is hard to comprehend how the anti-GMO movement can sleep at night.”

See the video (50%/50% presentation/discussion) here (about 40 min):

Three of the slides which are slightly difficult to read on a small screen can be seen as large pictures when clicking on the thumbnails below:

You too can sign the letter here: http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/join-us_rjr.html

Golden Rice

An update by adrian dubock, executive secretary, golden rice humanitarian board.

In early 2001, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines became the first licensee of Professors Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer for what became known as Golden Rice.

IRRI agreed to develop Golden Rice to fulfil the inventors' vision: to make the nutritional benefits of Golden Rice available as an additional intervention for vitamin A deficiency (VAD), without any additional cost compared to white rice, in developing countries to governments, small farmers or consumers. Except for commercial export, no restrictions were imposed on what the farmers could do with the seed. Golden Rice was designed by its inventors, and the technology donated by them, to help the ‘resource poor’.

In the same year, I was fortunate to accompany Ingo and Peter to deliver to IRRI the first 600 seeds, and six 2.5mL tubes of the genes necessary to turn any white rice into a biosynthetic factory for beta-carotene. Beta-carotene, from any source, is converted by the human body into vitamin A. It is vitamin A which is essential for a functional immune system, allowing children and their mothers to fight infection and to prevent the childhood blindness often associated with VAD. Later research confirmed that the beta-carotene in Golden Rice is converted very efficiently into vitamin A. As a source of vitamin A Golden Rice can be as effective as milk, eggs or butter. Only 40 grams consumed daily is expected to prevent death and blindness, with no possibility of overdosing, as the human body only converts the beta-carotene it needs to vitamin A and excretes the rest unchanged.

Shortly after Ingo and Peter had published their initial ‘Proof of Concept’ research in 2000, they elicited the help of Syngenta. In return for Syngenta committing to assist the inventor’s humanitarian project, Syngenta acquired the commercial rights to the inventor’s core technology. In 2004 Syngenta renounced its commercial interest in favour of more profitable opportunities. But not before its scientists had made significant improvements to the technology. As they were obligated to, Syngenta passed the technology rights and the improvements, as seed, to the inventor’s licensees, including IRRI, in 2006, so that IRRI could continue to fulfil their licence obligations to the inventors.

Meanwhile, extensive data sets have been generated —the data files alone total 32 megabytes— proving that Golden Rice differs from white rice only by the presence of beta-carotene, is safe to consume, and cannot cause allergies. It is direct descendants of one of those seeds, known as GR2E, delivered to IRRI in 2006, multiplied and introduced into Asian varieties of rice by conventional breeding, which have provided that data.

Although it is hard to imagine that such golden grains of polished rice could be included in commercial shipments of white rice by accident, in the modern world any such inclusion could be damaging to international trade. To prevent even such an unlikely situation, the regulatory data has been made available not only to countries where VAD remains a very significant public health problem, but also to other countries which import rice. Independent regulators have confirmed Golden Rice’s safety.

The inventors vision, expressed in Time magazine’s headline in July 2000, is getting closer. Despite the protesters' beliefs.

For more detailed information please refer to: http://rdcu.be/wwud ; http://rdcu.be/wwui ; http://rdcu.be/wwub

And the 2016 World Food Prize goes to ... Biofortified Sweet Potatoes

Biofortification: empowering and self-sustaining.

The 2016 World Food Prize has been awarded to the group of scientists who have tirelessly worked on breeding and introducing orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to Africa and thus benefitting millions of people, especially children, who are most susceptible to a lack of provitamin A. The World Food Prize thus once again recognises efforts to increase the quality and quantity of available food to the most vulnerable populations in the world.

Three of the 2016 laureates - Drs Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga and Jan Low are from the CGIAR International Potato Center (CIP). The fourth winner, Dr Howard Bouis, is the founder of HarvestPlus at the CGIAR International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and is being recognised for his work over 25 years to ensure biofortification was developed into an international plant breeding strategy across more than 40 countries.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is considered to be one of the most harmful forms of malnutrition in the developing world. It can cause blindness, limit growth, and weaken the body's immune system, thereby increasing morbidity and mortality. The condition affects more than 140 million pre-school children in 118 nations, and more than seven million pregnant women. It is probably the leading cause of child blindness in developing countries.

Biofortification seeks to improve nutritional quality of food crops through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology, as in the case of Golden Rice. The approach of providing farmers with biofortified crops, indepedently of the technology used to achieve it, is thus the most efficient way of creating a self-sustaining and virtuous cycle of nutritional independence and life quality improvement.

In the case of sweet potatoes, breeders utilise the fact that varieties producing and storing high levels of beta-carotene (=provitamin A) are available in the Andean region of South America and thus can use these for breeding purposes and create new orange-fleshed varieties acceptable to regional taste preferences in Africa. Unfortunately, such genetic variability is not available for every crop, thus requiring the use of laternative approaches to generate the new, desirable trait.

Before the introduction of orange-fleshed varieties people in Africa had a preference for white-fleshed varieties, something which is changing thanks to the work of the WFP 2016 laureates and their colleagues at various international organizations. That goes once more to prove that preferences can evolve, especially when consumers can be convinced of the benefits to their children.

And more than that, the example of the orange-fleshed sweet potato has proven that the matrix of biofortified crops are perfectly suited as a conduit to carry the much needed micronutrient, in this case is provitamin A. The outcome of this project calls for rapid introduction and adoption of a number of biofortified crops, like Golden Rice, biofortified bananas, cassava, sorghum, and other crops rich in other micronutrients like iron and zinc, which would address other major, widely spread nutritional deficiencies.

150 Nobel laureates (updated Oct 2019) have signed letter blasting Greenpeace over GMOs

From the washington post - june 2016.

More than 100 Nobel laureates have signed a letter urging Greenpeace to end its opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The letter asks Greenpeace to cease its efforts to block introduction of a genetically engineered strain of rice that supporters say could reduce Vitamin-A deficiencies causing blindness and death in children in the developing world.

By all standards, Nobel Prize laureates are usually considered the finest intellects that humanity has to offer, notwithstanding the fact that tens of thousands of other fine scientific minds and many other serious thinkers are supportive of biotechnology in agriculture. Add to that the simple fact that we all have been eating the biotechnology-derived products for the last twenty years without a single case of adverse effects linked to the biotechnological intervention as such, and non-experts should be able to arrive at the same conclusions that these fine minds have arrived at. And that is that biotechnology has already become part of the standard toolset used in plant breeding in combination with all other technologies developed and used since the inception of agriculture as we know it.

Here's a link to the press briefing by Sir Richard Roberts FRS and two other Nobel Laureates on the topic: Nobel Laureates Press Conference - 30 June 2016

You may also want to read Adrian Dubock's (Executive Secretary, Golden Rice Humanitarian Board) comments on how Greenpeace and other GMO critics misrepresent the Golden Rice Humanitarian Project at the Genetic Literacy Project site: "Disembedding grain: Golden Rice, The Green Revolution, and heirloom seeds in the Philippines"

Are you aware of the very important Support Precision Agriculture Initiative ? If you're interested in reading about the pro GMO campaign and learn more about agricultural biotechnology follow the link provided with the initiative's name, and if you like and agree with the content please Please sign on at the following page: Join Us! and do share with your colleagues"

The Golden Rice project wins the Patents for Humanity Award 2015

Patents for Humanity is a USPTO program that recognizes patent owners and licensees working to improve global health and living standards for underserved populations. The program advances the President's global development agenda by recognizing private sector leaders who bring life-saving technologies to those in need, while showing how patents are an integral part of tackling the world's challenges.

Back in 2001, in a ground-breaking humanitarian licensing arrangement , the three applicants (with Dubock then working for Syngenta) arranged in a cashless transaction for the defined commercial rights in US patent US 7,838,749 (and related patents) to be transferred to Syngenta. The inventors retained rights to the carefully and generously defined humanitarian applications. Syngenta, in return for its commercial options acquired, became obligated to support the humanitarian and non-profit vision of the inventors, and the inventors’ public sector licensees, rights to exploit any improvement, including as exemplified by patent application US20120042417 A1. Syngenta stated in 2004 that it had no continuing interest in commercial exploitation of the technology. Nevertheless, Syngenta’s obligations to support the inventors and their Golden Rice humanitarian project remain in place.

Dr Adrian Dubock (front left) collected the award at the White House on 20 April 2015 together with Prof Rob Russell, Golden Rice Humanitarian Board member(rear left).

These arrangements demonstrate that patents have a very useful role, even for projects involving developing countries, where the protection of intellectual property rights may be less well developed. Without the inventors having applied for patents, it would not have been possible to discuss and develop the above mutually beneficial arrangements between the private and public sectors. Moreover, having the Golden Rice patent in place was crucial to obtaining access to the supporting technology package from other inventors.

GOLDEN RICE NOW!

Showing the dark side of the anti gm campaigners.

This initiative, led by Dr Patrick Moore, co-founder and 15 years leader of Greenpeace and longtime adviser to government and industries on sustainability and the environment, conducts protests and forums with the aim to end the active blocking of Golden Rice by environmental organizations who claim that it is either of no value or that it is a detriment to human health and the environment. The ALLOW GOLDEN RICE NOW! Society plans to achieve this through direct public action, media communications and coalition-building.

Visit the ALLOW GOLDEN RICE NOW! Society website to find out more about dates, locations and activities.

BBC Interview with Prof Hans-Jörg Jacobsen and Vandana Shiva, 20 April 2015. Your browser does not support the audio element.

People Pope Blesses Golden Rice

Aspb news | volume 41, number 1.

BY TYRONE SPADY ASPB Legislative and Public Affairs Director

On November 7, 2013, Pope Francis gave his personal blessing to Golden Rice (GR). Why is this significant? Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is responsible for 500,000 cases of irreversible blindness and up to 2 million deaths each year. Particularly susceptible are pregnant women and children. Across the globe, an estimated 19 million pregnant women and 190 million children suffer from the condition. The good news, however, is that dietary supplementation of vitamin A can eliminate VAD. One way that holds particular promise is the administration via GR, which had been engineered to produce large amounts of vitamin A. A 2012 study by Tang et al. published (retracted for political reasons, not because of its content) in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that 100-150 g of cooked GR provided 60% of the Chinese Recommended Intake of vitamin A. Estimates suggest that supplementing GR for 20% of the diet of children and 10% for pregnant women and mothers will be enough to combat the effects of VAD.

Unfortunately, public misconceptions about genetically modified (GM) organisms have prevented GR from being available to the countries most affected by VAD. One such country is the Philippines, where more than 80% of the population identifies as Roman Catholic and field trials of GR are nearing completion. An official blessing of the church, therefore, could do a great deal to build support, allowing the Philippines to serve as a model for many of its neighbors on the potential health impacts of widespread availability and consumption of the golden grain.

Regrettably, the church did not provide an official endorsement. It turns out that there is quite a distinction between the pope's personal blessing and an official statement of support from the Vatican. To understand the nature of that distinction, we turned to the person who elicited the blessing, GR coinventor and ASPB member Ingo Potrykus. At the time of the blessing, Ingo, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, had been attending a meeting at the Vatican on the interaction of nutrition and brain development. At the end of the meeting, he was able to meet Pope Francis and took the opportunity to share a packet of GR. In response, the pope offered his personal blessing. (If an official blessing of the Holy See was given, it would come from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.) From Ingo's perspective, the pope is concerned that genetic modification technology primarily benefits big business and not the poor.

The most immediate hurdle to the usage of GR, according to Ingo, is the impending deregulation by the Philippine Department of Agriculture. Although no damage has been reported from the recent typhoon (Haiyan) that struck this part of the world, the fields had already been harvested. Philippine officials have been following GR development and field trials for several years, and Ingo believes that the government will ultimately give "the green light." He expects that deregulation will occur in two phases: first consumption, then planting. The consumption phase will require a two-year study of the impacts of GR consumption on VAD in Philippine children. The study will be conducted by the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education (http://bit. ly/1bXh9AX), which has expertise in VAD and blindness. Only after the study will farmers be allowed to plant GR, said Ingo.

GR distribution will be carried out by existing small-scale operations. Further, it will be sold at the same price as conventional cultivars. It is believed that this will help to facilitate adoption. In addition to vitamin A production, Ingo believes that other agronomic improvements, such as increased pest resistance and yield, will further increase the attractiveness of GR to farmers.

While not a full-throated endorsement of GR or GM, the pope's blessing is a step in the right direction. It is also an important indicator of slowly shifting global attitudes regarding the role that GM foods will play in the world's long-term food security.

Copyright for this article lies with ASPB News

Biofortified rice as a contribution to the alleviation of life-threatening micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries

A good start is a food start.

Dietary micronutrient deficiencies, such as the lack of vitamin A, iodine, iron or zinc, are a major source of morbidity (increased susceptibility to disease) and mortality worldwide. These deficiencies affect particularly children, impairing their immune system and normal development, causing disease and ultimately death. The best way to avoid micronutrient deficiencies is by way of a varied diet, rich in vegetables, fruits and animal products.

The second best approach, especially for those who cannot afford a balanced diet, is by way of nutrient-dense staple crops. Sweet potatoes, for example, are available as varieties that are either rich or poor in provitamin A. Those producing and accumulating provitamin A (orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes) are called biofortified ,* as opposed to the white-fleshed sweet potatoes, which do not accumulate provitamin A. In this case, what needs to be done is to introduce the biofortified varieties to people used to the white-fleshed varieties, as is happening at present in southern Africa by introducing South American varieties of orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes.

Unfortunately, there are no natural provitamin A-containing rice varieties. In rice-based societies, the absence of β-carotene in rice grains manifests itself in a marked incidence of blindness and susceptibility to disease, leading to an increased incidence of premature death of small children, the weakest link in the chain.

Rice plants produce β-carotene (provitamin A) in green tissues but not in the endosperm (the edible part of the seed). The outer coat of the dehusked grains—the so-called aleurone layer—contains a number of valuable nutrients, e.g. vitamin B and nutritious fats, but no provitamin A. These nutrients are lost with the bran fraction in the process of milling and polishing. While it would be desirable to keep those nutrients with the grain, the fatty components are affected by oxidative processes that make the grain turn rancid when exposed to air. Thus, unprocessed rice—also known as brown rice—is not apt for long-term storage.

Even though all required genes to produce provitamin A are present in the grain, some of them are turned off during development. This is where the ingenuity of the Golden Rice inventors, Profs Ingo Potrykus (formerly ETH Zurich) and Peter Beyer (University of Freiburg) comes into play. They figured out how to turn on this complex pathway again with a minor intervention.

The shocking fact is that, far from reaching the envisaged Millenium Development Goals, more than 10 million children under the age of five are still dying every year. A high proportion of those children die victims of common diseases that could be prevented through a better nutrition. This number has been equated with a ‘Nutritional Holocaust’ . It is unfortunate that the world is not embracing more readily a number of approaches wih the potential to substantially reduce the number of deaths. It has been calculated that the life of 25 percent of those children could be spared by providing them with diets that included crops biofortified with provitamin A (beta-carotene) and zinc. Golden Rice is such a biofortified crop. Those involved in the project are hopeful that in a near future Golden Rice will be growing in farmers' fields and helping to improve the diets of millions of people.

Golden Rice grains are easily recognisable by their yellow to orange colour. The stronger the colour the more β-carotene. While a yellow rice is still unfamiliar to most of us, it is hoped that the pleasant colour will help promote its adoption. Would you believe that once upon a time carrots were white or purple? Orange-coloured carrots are the product of a mutation selected by a Dutch horticulturist a few hundred years ago, because it was the colour of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau!

*Welch RM and Graham RD (2004) Breeding for micronutrients in staple food crops from a human nutrition perspective. J Exp Bot 55:353-364.

Quantum leap:

Golden rice accumulates provitamin a (β-carotene) in the grain.

Rice produces β-carotene in the leaves but not in the grain, where the biosynthetic pathway is turned off during plant development. In Golden Rice two genes have been inserted into the rice genome by genetic engineering, to restart the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway leading to the production and accumulation of β-carotene in the grains. Both genes are naturally involved in carotene biosynthesis. The difference here is that the reconstructed pathway is not subject to downregulation, as usually happens in the grain.

Since a prototype of Golden Rice was developed in the year 2000, new lines with higher β-carotene content have been generated. The intensity of the golden colour is a visual indicator of the concentration of β-carotene in the endosperm.Our goal is to make sure that people living in rice-based societies get a full complement of provitamin A from their traditional diets. This would apply to countries such as India, Vietnam, Bangladesh. the Philippines, and Indonesia. Golden Rice could still be a valuable complement to children's diets in many countries by contributing to the reduction of clinical and sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency-related diseases.

Many people are aware that vitamin A has something to do with vision, especially at night. But many are not aware of the central role it plays in maintaining the integrity of the immune system. According to the World Health Organization, dietary vitamin A deficiency (VAD) compromises the immune systems of approximately 40 percent of children under the age of five in the developing world, greatly increasing the risk of severe illnesses from common childhood infections, thus causing hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths among them.

In remote rural areas Golden Rice could constitute a major contribution towards sustainable vitamin A delivery. To achieve this goal a strong, concerted, and interdisciplinary effort is needed. This effort must include scientists, breeders, farmers, regulators, policy-makers, and extensionists. The latter will play a central role in educating farmers and consumers as to their available options. While the most desirable option woud be a varied and adequate diet, this goal is not always achievable, at least not in the short term. The reasons are manifold, ranging from tradition to geographical and economical limitations. Golden Rice is a step in the right direction in that it does not create new dependencies or displace traditional foodstuff.

Golden Rice , the real thing

Who is behind golden rice.

Helen Keller International

Golden Rice will reach those who need it at no additional cost

Growers will be able to reuse their seed as they please.

Those most in need of this new seed-based technology are those who can least afford buying an adequate diet, rich in essential nutrients. This has been taken into consideration by the creators of Golden Rice , Profs Peter Beyer and Ingo Portrykus, and the crop protection company Syngenta, who have worked together to make the latest, improved version of Golden Rice available for humanitarian use in developing countries, free of charge.

The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board encourages further research to determine how the technology may play a part in the ongoing global effort to fight Vitamin A Deficiency in poor countries. While Golden Rice is an exciting development, it is important to keep in mind that malnutrition is to a great extent rooted in political, economic and cultural issues that will not be solved by a technical fix. Yet Golden Rice offers people in developing countries a valuable and affordable choice in the fight against the scourge of malnutrition.

This site is maintained by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board for the purpose of providing information on the background and progress of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Project.

Eat orange! We really mean it!

Eat orange! A motto promoted by HarvestPlus

158 Nobel Laureates praise Philippines move

Richard J Roberts, 1993 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine, on behalf of the 157 Nobel Prize winners and 13,292 co-signers supporting GMOs, have expressed their delight with the recent announcement of the move by the Philippine Department of Agriculture to authorize the direct use of Golden Rice as food and feed or for Processing. Visit Support Precision Agriculture.

Supplementation not sustainable

Pandemic affects supplementation programs.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) , in 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the potential benefits of this key child survival intervention, only two out of five children in need received the life-saving benefits of vitamin A supplementation.

Colour Blindness

Art to remind us of the insensitivity of senseless opposition, regulatory status, golden rice vs white rice, ... and the difference is ....

A study carried out by IRRI, PRRI and the Danforth Center scientists and published in June 2019 shows that the only noticeable differences between Golden Rice and its non-transgenic counterpart are the elevated levels of beta-carotene and related carotenes. For more detail continue reading here.

Vitamin A boosts the immune system

Strong reduction of mortality in measles-affected children.

“The number of measles cases reported globally from January to March has tripled since last year, says the World Health Organisation. Africa saw a 700% surge. Since only 10% of all cases of the potentially fatal disease are reported, the trend could be even stronger than these initial indications. The main cause appears to be failure to immunise enough children.” Economist Espresso 16 April 2019

Many children in countries where VAD is endemic are not immunised. WHO states, with respect to vitamin A capsules: “For deficient children, the periodic supply of high-dose vitamin A in swift, simple, low-cost, high-benefit interventions has also produced remarkable results, reducing mortality by 23% overall and by up to 50% for acute measles sufferers.”

Doesn’t that make you wonder what a difference a biofortified food like Golden Rice could do for those children?

Another reason the world needs Golden Rice

Tb continued infectious disease.

Tuberculosis is a neglected disease, according to a newly published report in the Lancet, a medical journal. The experts’ plan is to end it within a generation. That is ambitious, even by the lofty measure of such proclamations. In 2017 tuberculosis killed 1.6m people, more than any other infectious disease. A quarter of the world’s population have latent TB infections, almost all in developing countries. Of them, 5-15% will develop the disease, mostly those whose immune systems are weakened by HIV, malnourishment or smoking . The plan calls for new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests, as well as doubling annual spending. Treating those who fall ill is crucial to preventing its spread. Yet currently more than a third of them go untreated. And nearly half a million new cases are resistant to several tuberculosis drugs. There seems a good chance the next generation will still be living with TB’s scourge.

From Economist Espresso 22 March 2019

Golden Rice is an effective source of vitamin A

β-carotene in golden rice is as good as β-carotene in oil at providing vitamin a to children.

August 2012. Researchers from USDA (Boston and Houston), Chinese instituions in Hunan, Beijing, and Hangzhou, and NIH (Bethesda), have determined that the β-carotene in Golden Rice is as effective as pure β-carotene in oil and better than that in spinach at providing vitamin A to children. A bowl of ∼100 to 150 g cooked Golden Rice (50 g dry weight) can provide ∼60% of the Chinese Recommended Nutrient Intake of vitamin A for 6-8-year-old children. The paper, with data based on a registered clinal trial, has been published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . And there is good reason to conduct these studies in China, considering the low vitamin A status of a great proportion of Chinese children (see Nutrition and Health Status Report) .

Golden Rice has got what it takes

Back in 2009, researchers were able to demonstrate that Golden Rice was an effective source of vitamin A. This investigation was done with a group of healthy adult volunteers in the USA. The study showed that the β-carotene contained in Golden Rice was highly available and easily taken up into the bloodstream by the human digestive system. While foodstuffs of plant origin are the major contributors of β-carotene in the diet, these are often absent from the diet, for customary and economic reasons. And moreover, conversion of the provitamin A carotenoids contained in them is generally inefficient. Conversion factors for provitamin A carotenoids from various fruits is in the range of 13:1 for sweet potato, 15:1 for carrots, and between 10:1 and 28:1 for green leafy vegetables. With a conversion factor of 4:1 Golden Rice displays a comparatively very favourable conversion ratio. This study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009 .

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