Media release

From: Wiley

Can certain fungi boost the micronutrient content of bread wheat?

New research in Plants, People, Planet indicates that bread wheat’s micronutrient content can be increased by cultivating it with a specific type of fungus.

When investigators grew different types of wheat with and without the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis, they observed that crops grown with fungi developed larger grains with greater amounts of phosphorus and zinc. The higher amount of phosphorus in the grain did not result in an increase in phytate (a compound that can hinder digestion of zinc and iron). As a result, bread wheat grown with fungi had higher bioavailability of zinc and iron overall compared with bread wheat grown in the absence of fungi.

“Beneficial soil fungi could be used as a sustainable option to exploit soil-derived plant nutrients. In this case, we found potential to biofortify wheat with important human micronutrients by inoculating the plants with mycorrhizal fungi,” said corresponding author Stephanie J. Watts-Williams, PhD, of the University of Adelaide, in Australia.