Project Number: 1265-42000-012-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Feb 23, 2006
End Date: Feb 22, 2011

Objective:
Characterize the influence of zinc and iron concentrations in edible crop tissues on bioavailability of crop cadmium to animals; characterize potential transfer of soil lead, arsenic, and copper by vegetable crps grown on long-term orchard soils and other contaminated agricultural soils and methods to prevent this transfer; characterize genetic resources and inheritance of grain Cd to reduce cadmium in durum wheat, flax, and nonoilseed sunflower and release improved lower Cd germplasm; develop methods to identify levels of heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic and cadmium that might be food safety/security risks to give us the tools to prevent contamination of food of both plant and animal origin.

Approach:
1) conduct animal feeding studies on the effect of dietary iron, zinc and calcium supply, and crop Zn level, on absorption of Cd in lettuce, polished rice and other crops for which Cd is important in understanding of human Cd risks from foods (durum wheat; bread wheat; etc.) 2) Grow commercial and garden carrot varieties with a wide range of properties on contaminated orchard soils rich in Pb and As; include tests of soil amendments expected to reduce uptake of Pb or As. Measure in vitro bioaccessibility and if needed bioavailability of crop Pb or As to animals. Examine metal residues in peel layer vs. internal storage root tissue. 3) Complete testing of inheritance of grain Cd concentration in sunflower hybrids, flax genotypes shown to differ in grain Cd accumulation, and durum wheat breeding lines; assist plant breeders develop germplasm releases with lower Cd than present commercial types. Examine physiology of genetic differences in Cd accumulation in relation to soil properties where crops are grown. 4) Test methods for rapid direct analysis, or preparation or extraction of Cd, As, and/or Pb in foods of plant or animal origin for spectrometric analysis at lower cost than present usual methods of analysis and verify the application of the methods developed for commercial food samples.