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Subjects

agriculture, agroecology, mycology, mycorrhizal fungi, fungi, corn, maize, crop, nutrition, malnutrition, global health, health

Abstract

Global iron deficiency is a major factor contributing to malnutrition and varied health conditions. One way to combat this is to maintain or increase the iron uptake of the globe’s major crops. Research has shown that certain types of mycorrhizal fungi can increase the nutrient uptake of plants. To further this research, we looked at the arbuscular fungi Rhizophagus intraradices and its potential relationship with the corn variety “Golden Bantam 8 Row”. This type of mycorrhizal fungi improves plant nutrition including the plant’s ability to source iron from the natural environment. Much of the iron found in the natural environment is in the form of ferric hydroxide. The Rhizophagus intraradices variety can convert this form of iron into one that is usable by plants. R. intraradices can increase the iron content in many crop types, including corn varieties. This could be important information in the efforts to relieve global malnutrition, something that will only be exacerbated by climate change. However, upon completion of this study, we found several areas of improvement that will need to occur to obtain more conclusive results.

DOI

10.15760/mcnair.2023.16.1.1

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/39296

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