Thought this might be of interest ..... from "Nature" magazine:

Love Liza

[log in to unmask] (Liza May)

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Worldwide, more than 3 billion people have an iron
deficiency, and increasing the iron in the food they eat would
help. Researchers identified a plant gene that helps a small
flowering plant called Arabidopsis take up iron from the soil
efficiently. By transferring the gene to other plants,
researchers might be able to help them live in soil that is
poor in iron. The new gene could also make crop plants richer
in iron and ease iron deficiencies in the people who eat them.

Reference: Robinson, N.J., Procter, C.M.,
Connolly, E.L. et al. 1999. A ferric-chelate
reductase for iron uptake from soils. Nature
397(6721):694-697.