Iron bioavailability in low phytate pea

The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of genotype and environment on iron bioavailability in a set of five pea varieties differing in phytate concentration using the Caco-2 mammalian cell bioassay, to determine whether iron bioavailability in field pea is heritable by evaluating recombinant inbred lines differing in phytate concentration using the Caco-2 mammalian cell bioassay, and to determine the effect of the pea low phytate trait on chicken performance and iron bioavailability in chicken.

In a previous study, two low phytate pea lines (1-2347-144 and 1-150-81) were developed from CDC Bronco at the Crop Development Centre of University of Saskatchewan. As a powerful chelator of iron, phytate can reduce the iron bioavailability in diets.  The low phytate peas may have increased iron bioavailability compared to the normal phytate peas.  In this project, the comparison of iron bioavailability among the two low phytate pea lines, their parent CDC Bronco and two other popular pea varieties in western Canada (CDC Meadow and CDC Golden), which are derived from 3 replicate field experiments conducted by M.Sc. student Tamira Delgerjav in 2009 and 2010, will be conducted using the methods of Caco-2 mammalian cell bioassay. The seeds from these varieties will be increased at Meath Park, Saskatchewan in 2011 and 2012 for the in vivo chicken study.  The low phytate line 1-2347-144 and CDC Meadow were crossed to develop F₇ recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from the experiment of Mr. Arun Shunmugam. The inheritance of iron bioavailability will be tested by evaluating F₇ RILs and their parents using in vitro Caco-2 mammalian cell bioassay.