{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,25]],"date-time":"2026-06-25T04:00:50Z","timestamp":1782360050114,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,14]],"date-time":"2019-11-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1573689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR)","award":["\u201cDepartments of excellence\u201d, Law 232\/2016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["\u201cDepartments of excellence\u201d, Law 232\/2016"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Macro- and micronutrients, essential for the maintenance of human metabolism, are assimilated daily through the diet. Wheat and other major cereals are a good source of nutrients, such as carbohydrates and proteins, but cannot supply a sufficient amount of essential micronutrients, including provitamin A. As vitamin A deficiency (VAD) leads to several serious diseases throughout the world, the biofortification of a major staple crop, such as wheat, represents an effective way to preserve human health in developing countries. In the present work, a key enzyme involved in the branch of carotenoids pathway producing \u03b2-carotene, lycopene epsilon cyclase, has been targeted by a Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (TILLING) approach in a \u201cblock strategy\u201d perspective. The null mutant genotype showed a strong reduction in the expression of the lcyE gene and also interesting pleiotropic effects on an enzyme (\u03b2-ring hydroxylase) acting downstream in the pathway. Biochemical profiling of carotenoids in the wheat mutant lines showed an increase of roughly 75% in \u03b2-carotene in the grains of the complete mutant line compared with the control. In conclusion, we describe here the production and characterization of a new wheat line biofortified with provitamin A obtained through a nontransgenic approach, which also sheds new light on the molecular mechanism governing carotenoid biosynthesis in durum wheat.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms20225703","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,14]],"date-time":"2019-11-14T10:56:34Z","timestamp":1573728994000},"page":"5703","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":29,"title":["Provitamin A Biofortification of Durum Wheat through a TILLING Approach"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9653-8002","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesco","family":"Sestili","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Dolores","family":"Garcia-Molina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gianluca","family":"Gambacorta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Romina","family":"Beleggia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops (CREA-CI), 71122 Foggia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ermelinda","family":"Botticella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pasquale","family":"De Vita","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops (CREA-CI), 71122 Foggia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniel Valentin","family":"Savatin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2857-4498","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefania","family":"Masci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Domenico","family":"Lafiandra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2019, November 13). 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