GMOs on the march

The 'Golden Potato': a new source of beta-carotene

25.04.2007 |Ger Roebeling

"WECf is critical to another gentech enriched food product: EU member state Germany has developed a Golden Potato After the Golden Rice enriched with vitamin A it should deal with vitamin A deficiency, whereas a diverse diet would offer a more balanced solution".

News release from ENEA (National Institute for New Technologies, Energy and Environment, Italy), unofficial translation by AgBioView's Italian correspondent, April 13, 2007

A new potato variety 'GOLDEN POTATO', enriched in beta-carotene, has been developed in the Laboratories of Biotecnologies of ENEA and Freiburg University by genetic engineering. The provitamin A content was increased 3.600 fold, so that 250 grams of 'GOLDEN POTATOES' are equivalent to 50% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), as compared to 900 Kg of the parental potato variety (Desirée).

Vitamin A deficiency is one of the main malnutrition problems in the world, causing diverse illnesses among which blindness: a WHO assessment in 2002 suggested that 350,000 children go blind every year because of lack of vitamin A.

Africa, South-America and Eastern Europe, where potato is already being cultivated and where vitamin A deficiency is common due to rich sources of beta carotene, will be able to enjoy the benefits of this new potato variety without economic barriers because the 'Golden Potatoes' have not been patented and will be made available to everybody who wants to use them in breeding programs, within the framework of existing regulations.

Plos One, an open access journal of the Public Library of Science, has published the research resulting from a collaboration of Prof. Giovanni Giuliano's group at ENEA (Rome, Italy) and prof. Peter Beyer's group at the University of Freiburg, Germany. The collaboration between the two research groups has already yielded several plant varieties enriched in beta-carotene. Potato is the fourth staple crop as source of calories for human consumption after wheat, rice and maize; it belongs to the plant family of Solanacee (likewise pepper, tomato and eggplant) and human beings started its cultivation around 2.000 years ago on the slopes of South American mountains.

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