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This research focuses on integrating soil, agronomic, physiological and nutritional
research to provide criteria needed to design cultural practices and allow genetic
modifications of staple food crops to improve human health. It will lead to the
development of sustainable ways to improve the nutritional quality and safety of
principal plant foods with respect to micronutrient elements (e.g., Fe and Zn),
certain vitamins and heavy metals (e.g., Cd) that are considered to be significant
human health problems. These objectives will be achieved through research directed
at obtaining a better understand of the chemistry and availability of these elements
in soil, their spatial distribution and variability in areas of crop production,
their absorption by roots, their translocation to and deposition in edible portions
of food crops, the identification of selection criteria for identifying genetic
factors involved in controlling their accumulation by plants, and identifying food
substances that effect their bioavailability to humans from typical diets and their
mechanisms of action in the gut.
App:<p>Effects of soil chemical and physical factors (e.g., elemental form, salinity,
landscape position) on availability of important health-related elements (e.g., Fe,
Zn, Cu, Se, Cd, etc.) to crops and their accumulation in human foods will be studied.
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Cereal genotypes will be studied for differences in grain-Cd accumulation and
interactions with Zn fertilizers to improve food safety. Mechanisms of micronutrient
homeostasis will be studied in whole plants and reproductive organs to improve their
density and bioavailability in edible products. Genetic modifications will be used
to increase health-promoting substances in food crops and to identify important plant
food inhibitors (e.g., certain polyphenols) of Fe and Zn bioavailability to humans.
In vitro or animal models will be used to study enteric bioavailability of important
nutrients, and examine mechanisms of action of promoter and inhibitor substances in
human diets. An in vitro Caco-2 cell model will be modified to study interactions of
diet with nutrient bioavailability (e.g., Fe, Zn, provitamin A carotenoids), test the
role of hind-gut microorganisms on nutrient absorption from foods, and assess the
role of non-digestible carbohydrates (e.g., inulin) in this process.