The scientists, based at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and East Malling Research in Kent, UK, have used tracers to identify where and when vitamin C is produced in blackcurrant bushes and how it moves throughout the plant. Using different strains of blackcurrant plant the team can compare and analyse how the vitamin accumulates in the blackcurrant fruit as well as the limiting factors.
To date the research has discovered that starch that accumulates after the berries have been harvested plays a key role in determining vitamin C production the following year. The scientists are now adjusting carbohydrate levels across the entire plant to alter starch deposits to explore how this affects vitamin levels and fruit quality.
Dr Robert Hancock, the research leader at SCRI, said: "Understanding how and when vitamin C is produced and accumulates in the blackcurrant plants has clear benefits for the consumer. We can grow crops that produce juice that will have higher levels of vitamin C and a better taste. Vitamin C is vital to tissue growth and repair and gives a big boost to the immune system but because it dissolves in water the body cannot store it.
"We need to eat vitamin C rich food every day but people just do not get enough. Blackcurrants contain more vitamin C than oranges so boosting that even further can only be a good thing. Blackcurrant production has soared in the UK in the last few years as
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Contact: Matt Goode
matt.goode@bbsrc.ac.uk
44-179-341-3299
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
31-Jul-2006