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Iron pulsing, a cost effective and affordable seed invigoration technique for iron bio-fortification and nutritional enrichment of rice grains

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Abstract

Rice being a major staple food for millions of people, it has been one of the major targets for bio-fortification and iron bio-fortification in rice has been in prime focus to address global micronutrient malnutrition. Commonly practiced methods for obtaining Fe biofortified rice includes soil amendments and foliar spray with iron salts, breeding and development of transgenic rice varieties with Fe-enriched grain are associated with impediments like high cost, labor intensiveness, sub-optimal outcome and approval for commercialization respectively. Iron pulsing technique has reportedly enhanced the carbon and nitrogen assimilation in rice seedlings, which has been translated in yield. Based on the previous findings, in the present study, we have undermined the efficacy of ‘iron pulsing’, in improving the iron content and nutritional status of rice kernel obtained from pulsed plants. The present study documents that kernel of seeds obtained from iron pulsed plants have a higher amounts of iron, carbohydrate, protein, lipid, vitamins, nutrient and anti-oxidants than that of non-treated ones. The iron localization studies revealed that iron was mostly present in the endosperm and embryo. Besides, the ferritin expression levels also validated the fact that, the treated grains have accumulated more iron. Thus, iron-pulsing can serve as a novel and propitious sustainable agricultural innovation for iron bio-fortification and improvisation of the overall nutritional value of the rice grains that is affordable, user and consumer friendly in years to come.

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Funding

The research was supported by CAS, Dept. of Botany, University of Calcutta, West Bengal; Department of Biotechnology, West Bengal [project no. 76(Sanc.) – BT/P/Budget/RD-14/2017, Date 27.03.2017]. SD (CSIR SPM-JR) acknowledges CSIR for providing her fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700019, India

    Swarnali Dey, Rhitorbi Sengupta & Rita Kundu

  2. Institute of Health Sciences, Presidency University, (2nd Campus), Newtown, Kolkata, 700156, India

    Subhabrata Paul

  3. Department of Life Sciences, CHRIST (Deemed to Be University), Bangalore, 560029, India

    Anish Nag, Joel Jose & Jobi Xavier

  4. Centre for Nano Biotechnology, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India

    Geetha Gopal & Amitava Mukherjee

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  1. Swarnali Dey
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  2. Subhabrata Paul
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  3. Anish Nag
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  4. Rhitorbi Sengupta
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  5. Geetha Gopal
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  6. Joel Jose
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  7. Jobi Xavier
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  8. Amitava Mukherjee
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  9. Rita Kundu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception, design and execution. SD performed the experiments, analysed the data, and helped in primary draft preparation; SP and AN helped in data curation, processing and statistical analysis; RS helped in performing the experiments; GG, JJ, JX and AM helped in elemental analysis of the samples; RK conceptualized the work and reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rita Kundu.

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Dey, S., Paul, S., Nag, A. et al. Iron pulsing, a cost effective and affordable seed invigoration technique for iron bio-fortification and nutritional enrichment of rice grains. Plant Growth Regul 100, 545–559 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-022-00957-z

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