ETH-Zürich: Vitamin B6-enhanced food plants to compensate deficiencies in human diet

Licensing opportunity

The Institute of Plant Science at ETH-Zürich, Switzerland, is looking to license its gene over-expression technology that enhances vitamin B6 content of food plants. The technology will allow the development of stress resistant food crops biofortified in vitamin B6 which can be stored for prolonged periods without loss of nutrient effectiveness. Crops enriched in vitamin B6 will contribute to producing food for populations, poor or rich, whose diet is deficient in this essential vitamin.

Vitamin B6 has potent anti-ageing, cardio-protective and anticancer properties and is essential to the human diet. Its  antioxidant properties are as potent as vitamin C and E, and it participates in more bodily functions than any other single nutrient.

Plants are the major source of vitamin B6, and researchers at the ETH have developed a method to increase its levels in Arabidopsis thaliana plants by manipulating the genes involved in vitamin B6 biosynthesis.

The technique relies on overexpressing the genes that play a central role in the vitamin B6 biosynthetic pathway and results not only in increased levels of the vitamin, but also in increased seed size and tolerance to oxidative stress.