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The edible fungus Monascus purpureus, which
is a regular part of the diet in southeast Asia where vitamin A deficiency is
common, can be made to produce beta-carotene, potentially offering as much
vitamin A as a carrot. Click the image for more information about
it.
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Red Fungus Turned Orange May Help Tackle Vitamin
Deficiency
By Jan Suszkiw
May 7, 2009 The edible fungus Monascus
purpureus imparts a distinct flavor and red color when added to fermented
rice dishes such as those served in Asia. Now, with "a helping hand"
from science, the fungus could offer a way to address a major public health
concern: vitamin A deficiency (VAD).
Vitamin A deficiency is especially acute in Africa and Southeast Asia,
according to Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) geneticist
Daniel
Skinner, who is studying Monascus. In malnourished children, for
example, VAD is a leading cause of preventable blindness and increases the risk
of illness and death from severe infections such as diarrheal disease.
Monascus' popularity in fermented rice, noodles and other
dishesespecially those eaten in poor, rural areas of Asiagave
Skinner an idea. Why not replace the fungus' pigment-producing genes with two
from another species that makes beta-carotene, which the human body readily
converts to vitamin A? If such a feat could be accomplished, he reasoned,
perhaps a beta-carotene-producing strain of Monascus could be
substituted for the one now used in Asian foods, thus offering a way to address
VAD in people en masse.
In studies at the ARS
Wheat
Genetics, Quality, Physiology and Disease Research Unit in Pullman, Wash.,
Skinner and his colleagues used equipment popularly called a gene gun to fire
two copies of beta-carotene genes from the fungus Blakeslea trispora
into the DNA of Monascus, enabling it to make the orange-colored pigment.
Cheryl
Vahling, an ARS molecular biologist at Pullman, and Kamolnan
Taweeyanyongkul of Mission College
in Saraburi, Thailand, collaborated with Skinner.
The researchers believe the modified Monascus can produce about as
much beta-carotene as a carrot, under the right growth conditions. Skinner
began researching the strategy in 2002 as part of a broader program to improve
wheat's productivity and quality for domestic food use and export.
Read
more about this research in the May/June 2009 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.