Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient to maintain normal metabolic functions of human body. It was estimated that the prevalence of Fe deficiency anaemic to be 50% or more in the area where vegetable-based diets are used as major food source more than half of suffers from due use. Using various breeding methods to increase the Fe content and bio-availability in our major crop, rice, is of important for the improvement of the iron supply in Chinese population.

Indica and japonica rice lines with a reduced phytic acid content has been selected in our previous study by radiation breeding strategy. The phytic acid content of the lines is about 40-60% of that in wild-type rice. The reduced phytic acid could increase the bioavailability of the micronutrients such as iron and zinc of the foods. In this study, we proposed to continue the breeding program using the low-phytic acid mutants. The research will include two parts: 1) development of elite rice lines with reduced phytic acid content; 2) Creation of rice genetic materials with reduced phytic acid and enhanced iron contents. Our finally goal is to develop genetic materials with double- high characteristics and good agronomic traits. The achieved materials from this study will have great potential to solve the problem of dietary iron deficiency in Chinese population.