Current strategies for vitamin E biofortification of crops.

Laurent Mène-Saffrané, Sébastien Pellaud

Journal: Current opinion in biotechnology 2017;44():189-197

PMID: 28327426

Abstract

Vitamin E refers to four tocopherols and four tocotrienols that are exclusively synthesized by photosynthetic organisms. While α-tocopherol is the most potent vitamin E compound, it is not the main form consumed since the composition of most major crops is dominated by γ-tocopherol. Nutritional studies show that populations of developed countries do not consume enough vitamin E and that a large proportion of individuals exhibit plasma α-tocopherol deficiency. Following the identification of vitamin E biosynthetic genes, several strategies including metabolic engineering, classic breeding and mutation breeding, have been undertaken to improve the vitamin E content of crops. In addition to providing crops in which vitamin E content is enhanced, these studies are revealing the bottlenecks limiting its biosynthesis.

Address: University of Fribourg, Department of Biology, Chemin du musée, 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Electronic address: [email protected].; University of Fribourg, Department of Biology, Chemin du musée, 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.

DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2017.01.007