Engineered maize's vitamin boost

A genetically modified (GM) maize fortified with three vitamins has been created by European researchers. The modifications make the growing maize, or corn, produce large amounts of beta carotene and precursors of vitamin C and folic acid.

The development marks the first time any plant has been engineered to make more than one vitamin. Producing a plant that contains three vitamins could help those in poorer nations who subsist on one food and rarely eat a balanced diet, the scientists said.

The yield of vitamins "vastly exceeds" any produced by conventional plant breeding methods, wrote Dr Christou and his colleagues, from universities in Spain and in Germany, in their paper.

Before now plants have been produced that are fortified with one vitamin. However, added the researchers, wide use of such plants might alleviate one deficiency and do nothing about the others.