Phytic Acid and Mineral Biofortification Strategies: From Plant Science to Breeding and Biotechnological Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

Mineral deficiencies, particularly for iron and zinc, affect over two billion people worldwide, mainly in developing countries where diets are based on the consumption of staple crops. Mineral biofortification includes different approaches aimed to increase the level and/or bioavailability of minerals in the edible parts of plants, particularly the seeds.

One of the main “antinutrients” that affects mineral bioavailability is phytic acid, the main phosphorous storage form, a strong cation chelator. Different low phytic acid (lpa) mutants have been isolated in different crops and in some cases the increased mineral bioavailability from these mutant seeds was shown. Phytic acid is not only a storage compound, but also a very important signalling molecule, involved in different regulatory processes. For this reason, some lpa mutants show negative pleiotropic effects.

Another goal of biofortification is to enhance the seed mineral concentration, modulating mineral uptake, chelation and storage, without interfering with general mineral homeostasis in the plant. Different genes have been described as good candidates to reach this objective, such as genes encoding for metal transporters (i.e. vacuolar iron transporter, VIT; zinc-regulated transporter, ZRT), mineral storage proteins (i.e. Ferritin), transcription factors regulating seed mineral concentration (i.e. bHLH, bZIP, NAC) and genes involved in the synthesis of metal chelators (i.e. nicothianamine synthase, NAS).

Breeding programs or transgenic approaches aimed to develop biofortified crops should exploit basic plant science results in order to maximize the utility of the modified crops, avoiding the display of negative pleiotropic effects.

This Special Issue aims to highlight new developments in our understanding of how perturbation in phytic acid content or in seed mineral accumulation contributes to plant function, growth, and response to the environment.

Contributions to this Special Issue are invited from scientists working at all system levels, including the molecule, cell, organism and environment/ecological perspectives.

Dr. Eleonora Cominelli
Dr. Francesca Sparvoli
Dr. Roberto Pilu
Guest Editors

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