Golden Rice -
Vitamin A-deficiency causes blindness among children and may even lead to their death. Vit. A-deficiency often occurs where rice is the staple food, since rice grain does not contain provitamin A, i.e., β-carotene.
Three transgenes providing phytoene synthase, phytoene desaturase, zeta-carotene desaturase and lycopene cyclase activities were transferred into rice by Agrobacterium mediated transformation. All the trans genes were introduced together in a single co-transformation experiment.
The resulting transgenic rice, popularly called "golden rice" contains good quantities of β-carotene, which gives the grains a golden colour. In one transgenic line the β-carotene content was as high as 85% of the total carotenoids present in the grain.
