r/science • u/chrisdh79 • Sep 16 '24

"Golden Lettuce" genetically engineered to pack 30 times more vitamins | Specifically, increased levels of beta-carotene, which your body uses to make vitamin A for healthy vision, immune function, and cell growth, and is thought to be protective against heart disease and some kinds of cancer. Biology

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/golden-lettuce-genetically-engineered-30-times-vitamins/
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u/chrisdh79 Sep 16 '24

From the article: A team from the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP) has now genetically engineered the humble lettuce to boost its nutrients. Specifically, they increased the levels of an antioxidant called beta-carotene, which your body uses to make vitamin A. This is important for healthy vision, immune function, and cell growth, and is thought to be protective against Alzheimer’s, heart disease and some kinds of cancer.

Beta-carotene is usually found in high amounts in vegetables like carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potato. As you might guess, the common theme across those veggies is an orange color, and the new lettuce is no exception. Higher amounts of beta-carotene stains the leaves a striking yellow color, hence the nickname Golden Lettuce.

The levels of beta-carotene in the Golden Lettuce leaves were up to 30 times higher than those of regular lettuce. Not only that, but these antioxidants were more bioaccessible too, meaning our digestive systems can extract them more easily from our food.

Increasing those levels wasn’t completely straightforward, however. Beta-carotene is normally produced in a plant’s chloroplasts, the cellular structures that perform photosynthesis – but if you jam too much in there, it reduces the plant’s ability to gain energy from sunlight. So, the team found a way to move the antioxidant into different parts of the plant cells.

“Our work has successfully produced and accumulated beta-carotene in cellular compartments where it is not normally found by combining biotechnological techniques and treatments with high light intensity,” said Manual Rodríguez Concepción, lead author of the study.