Location: Children's Nutrition Research Center
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
The objective of the proposed research is to develop biomarkers of nutritional status as affected by nutrient content of foods produced under changing environmental conditions.
Approach
This will be accomplished through the approaches of mass spectroscopy of plasma constituents including nutrients, metabolites, or other compounds; development of new measurement technologies; or, mathematical approaches to collectively analyze patterns of nutrients in biological fluids. The proposed research will address Problem Statement 1A: Determine Agricultural Practices that Influence the Nutritional Status of Americans.
Progress Report
Children's Nutrition Research Center scientists are collaborating with the Texas A&M AgriLife, Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture to conduct a broad range of research activities that addresses the critical intersection of production agriculture with human, environmental, and economic health outcomes. Advancing the food and agriculture system synergy will improve diets and health outcomes, reduce diet-related health care costs, improve quality of life, limit the environmental impact of the agriculture system, and reduce food waste while increasing food production to levels needed to nourish the estimated more than 9 billion people on Earth by 2050.
This year, personnel participated in the hiring process for new ARS scientists. The first federal scientist hire started in April 2023, based in College Station, Texas and conducts research focusing on responsive agriculture. This ARS scientist attended the American Society for Plant Biologists and presented research focused on: 1) Nutrient accumulation over multiple time points in the bioenergy crop poplar, and sorghum which is used for both bioenergy and edible grains. Plants were measured for iron and zinc accumulation in the leaves and roots of plants, and we have measured stress responses and gene expression for all genes in both genomes that responded to the iron and zinc limit and excess treatments. 2) We assembled whole genomes of soil bacteria (Sinorhizobium medicae, Rhizobium leguminosarum) which form a symbiosis with legume host and fix nitrogen for the host plant. These bacteria strains have novel genetic mechanisms to detoxify the heavy metals cadmium mercury and may act as an additional source of detoxification of these metals in the host-plants. 3) We analyzed gene expression responses to identify the most important genes in the legume species Medicago truncatula, the host-plant that interacts with the bacteria in #2 above. We have shown that when the host-plants form a symbiosis with the heavy metal tolerant bacteria in #2, the plants perform better, they have more biomass, and become more resilient to heavy metal stress. These findings will enable us to further improve the plant’s ability to retain toxic heavy metals in roots to prevent their transport into the edible portion of the plant.
During the year, collaborations with Texas A&M University have been formed as well as new relationships with ARS scientists in Houston, Texas, to analyze antioxidant and nutrient content in a breeding population of corn grown in Texas, and ARS scientists in Lubbock, Texas to identify genes responsible for higher micronutrient accumulation grains of sorghum, which is also grown widely in Texas. Several experiments are currently underway and planning for experiments during the 2024 growing season are in the planning stages.
Accomplishments
