This award supports the U.S.-India cooperative research entitled Towards Development of Wheat and Fungal Endophytes Capable of Expressing Bacterial Siderophores: A Sustainable Solution to Global Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA). The collaborators are Professors G.K. Podila, University of Alabama Huntsville, Ajit Varma, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and Sudhir Chincholkar, North Maharashtra. Iron deficiency anemia is an extensive worldwide problem that can be alleviated by improving the proportion of iron in grains, seeds, fruits and vegetables. The principal goal of this research is to develop wheat plants with increased iron nutrition. The investigators propose to develop transgenic wheat and a fungal endophyte (P. indica) capable of expressing bacterial siderophores in order to improve acquisition of iron by wheat.
Scope: This research has the potential to positively impact the nutritional health of large portions of the world's population and help to alleviate IDA. The collaborative research is an outgrowth of a U.S.-India workshop on Mycorrhizal fungi jointly organized by Drs. Varma and Podila in 2003 and supported by NSF. It involves exchanges of students and faculty between the U.S. and India. The benefits are mutual for the interacting scientists and students. Having wheat plants with increased iron nutrition will have expanded use in agriculture in India and the U.S.
