Video Transcript
It has been estimated that around
490 million people in India could be vitamin D deficient. How could scientists use the
knowledge they gained from making golden rice to help solve this problem? (A) They could breed golden rice
and normal rice together to make a hybrid species of rice that is high in vitamin
D. (B) They could grow the seeds of
rice in vitamin D-rich soils to make a new form of golden rice. Or (C) they could use the same
method to insert the gene for vitamin D production into rice.
This question refers to vitamin
deficiency and golden rice. So to find the correct answer,
let’s first review both of these key terms.
Deficiency is the lack of a certain
nutrient, which can cause health problems. For example, vitamin A deficiency
can lead to impairment of vision, the immune system, and reproduction. Vitamin A is actually made in the
body from provitamin A, also called carotene.
Carotene is found in foods that
have yellow, orange, and red pigments, for example, carrots and cantaloupe. Unfortunately, rice does not
contain provitamin A. So, vitamin A deficiency is
widespread in communities that depend on rice as their major food source. To help solve this problem,
scientists extracted the gene for provitamin A and inserted it into the seeds of
ordinary rice plants. When these seeds are planted and
grown, they produce golden rice, which contains provitamin A.
People who consume golden rice can
convert the provitamin A to vitamin A to stave off deficiency. This process is called genetic
modification, which alters the genome of an organism in order to get them to express
a desired trait.
Our question asks about vitamin D
deficiency, which can lead to abnormal bone development, as well as an impaired
immune system and issues with hormone production. So, how can the knowledge gained
from the production of golden rice be used to help combat this issue?
Well, instead of inserting a gene
for provitamin A into rice, scientists could extract and insert a gene for vitamin D
into rice seeds or even into the seeds of another common crop. If people were to consume enough of
this new genetically modified rice, which is represented in pink in the drawing to
distinguish it from golden rice, they would obtain sufficient vitamin D. This could help solve the issue of
vitamin D deficiency in India and in several other parts of the world.
Therefore, the best answer to our
question is (C): they could use the same method to insert the gene for vitamin D
production into rice.
