Nutritional value of wheat boosted
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A team of scientists has found a way to boost the protein, zinc and iron content in wheat, an achievement that could help bring more nutritious food to many millions of people worldwide.
Led by UC Davis researcher Jorge Dubcovsky, the team identified a gene in wild wheat that raises the grain’s nutritional content. The gene became nonfunctional for unknown reasons during humankind’s domestication of wheat. The team reported Friday in the journal Science that it used conventional breeding methods to bring the gene from wild emmer wheat into cultivated wheat varieties, enhancing the protein, zinc and iron value in the grain.
