title: From the concept of totipotency to biofortified cereals.
abstract: I was a college teacher when opportunity opened a path into academia. A fascination with totipotency channeled me into research on tissue culture. As I was more interested in contributions to food security than in scientific novelty, I turned my attention to the development of genetic modification technology for cereals. From my cell culture experience, I had reasons not to trust Agrobacterium for that purpose, and I developed direct gene transfer instead. In the early 1990s, I became aware of the problem of micronutrient deficiency, particularly vitamin A deficiency in rice-eating populations. Golden Rice, which contains increased amounts of provitamin A, was probably instrumental for the concept of biofortification to take off. I realized that this rice would remain an academic exercise if product development and product registration were not addressed, and this is what I focused on after my retirement. Although progress is slowly being made, had I known what this pursuit would entail, perhaps I would not have started. Hopefully Golden Rice will reach the needy during my lifetime.
authors.affiliation: Professor Emeritus, Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zurich, CH-4312 Magden, Switzerland; email: ingo@potrykus.ch.
authors.forename: Ingo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Potrykus
mesh_terms: D002523:Edible Grain; D005527:Food, Fortified; D030841:Food, Genetically Modified; D006801:Humans; D012275:Oryza
keywords: Autobiography; GMO regulation; Golden Rice; biofortification; genetic engineering; public good