Journal article
Vitamin Deficiencies in Humans: Can Plant Science Help?
The Plant cell, Vol.24(2), pp.395-414
2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100791
PMCID: PMC3315223
PMID: 22374394
Abstract
The term vitamin describes a small group of organic compounds that are absolutely required in the human diet. Although for the most part, dependency criteria are met in developed countries through balanced diets, this is not the case for the five billion people in developing countries who depend predominantly on a single staple crop for survival. Thus, providing a more balanced vitamin intake from high-quality food remains one of the grandest challenges for global human nutrition in the coming decade(s). Here, we describe the known importance of vitamins in human health and current knowledge on their metabolism in plants. Deficits in developing countries are a combined consequence of a paucity of specific vitamins in major food staple crops, losses during crop processing, and/or overreliance on a single species as a primary food source. We discuss the role that plant science can play in addressing this problem and review successful engineering of vitamin pathways. We conclude that while considerable advances have been made in understanding vitamin metabolic pathways in plants, more cross-disciplinary approaches must be adopted to provide adequate levels of all vitamins in the major staple crops to eradicate vitamin deficiencies from the global population.
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Details
- Title
- Vitamin Deficiencies in Humans: Can Plant Science Help?
- Creators
- Teresa FitzpatrickGilles J.C Basset - Horticultural Sciences DepartmentPatrick Borel - Nutriments Lipidiques et Prévention des Maladies MétaboliquesFernando Carrari - Instituto Nacional de Investigación AgropecuariaDean Dellapenna - Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyHanjo HellmannSonia Osorio - Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant PhysiologyChristophe Rothan - Biologie du fruit et pathologieVictoriano Valpuesta - Departamento de Biología Molecular y BioquímicaCatherine Caris-Veyrat - Sécurité et Qualité des Produits d'Origine Végétale
- Publication Details
- The Plant cell, Vol.24(2), pp.395-414
- Academic Unit
- Biological Sciences, School of
- Publisher
- American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)
- Identifiers
- 99900546611601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article