Abstract: More than two billion people worldwide are impacted by micronutrient deficiencies. The development of biofortified food crops is a sustainable way of increasing micronutrient intakes at no additional cost to growers and food manufacturers. We have employed multiple genetic strategies to biofortify rice and wheat with iron (Fe) including genetic engineering to overexpress genes and gene editing to mutate coding sequences involved in Fe uptake, transport and translocation. Much of our research has centred on the nicotianamine synthase (NAS) gene families in rice and wheat, however, we are increasingly interested in upstream Open Reading Frames (uORFs) that are located within the 5′ leader sequence of many eukaryotic genes. This presentation will describe several aspects of our research and highlight results relevant to not only Fe biofortification but also improved plant tolerance to Fe deficiency.

Bio: Alex Johnson is a teaching and research academic at the University of Melbourne specializing in agricultural biotechnology. He has strong interests in “biofortified” wheat, rice, and other crops that enrich human diets with essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc.

Alex also serves as Associate Dean (International) in the Faculty of Science and sits on the board of the University of Melbourne Botany Foundation. Prior to coming to Melbourne he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (Adelaide, Australia). He has a MSc and PhD from Virginia Tech in the USA.