Genetic Geritol

Dartmouth biologists are a step closer to solving one of the world's most prevalent nutritional problems: iron deficiency. More than a third of the soils are iron-deficient, resulting in lowered agricultural yields and nutritionally inadequate amounts of iron in crops that do grow.

Biology professor Mary Lou Guerinot and postdoctoral fellow Janette Fett worked with colleagues from the University of Minnesota to identify a gene that allows plant roots to convert a soil's unusable forms of iron into kinds that the roots can use. The researchers also found that the gene, which they cloned from the mustardlike weed Arabidopsis, is similar to genes in rice, yeast, worms, and humans. The resemblance may help scientists understand how various organisms regulate the process and rate of absorbing metals. If so, they may find ways of helping humans avoid another health problem: the toxicity that comes from ingesting too much iron, cadmium, or various other metals.

Researchers found a gene that helps plants pump iron.

Contributors:Skip Sturman '70.Suzanne Leonard '96,and the DAM staff.