Iron Deficiency: A Major Health Issue in the World

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Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for all living organisms, including human beings, but it is not readily available. Consequently, Iron (Fe) deficiency is a major threat to the health and development of the human populations in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that nearly 3.7 billion people are iron deficient, with 2 billion of these being anemic (WHO, 2007). Iron deficiency is most prevalent in south Asian countries (Zlotkin et al. 2004). In Bangladesh about half of all children and 70 percent of all women in Bangladesh are anemic (Ahmed 2000). Bangladesh loses 2 percent of its gross domestic product to iron deficiency (Ross and Horton 1998). Inadequate intake of dietary Fe, in quantity and quality, is the primary cause of Fe deficiency in developing countries. A diet consisting of poor Fe sources is one major reason for inadequate Fe intake. Iron deficiency can be reduced by providing healthy foods, supplementation, and food fortification (Haas et al. 2005), but poor families, especially from developing countries like Bangladesh cannot afford these strategies.
Biofortification is defined as the process of breeding food crops that are rich in bioavailable micronutrients (Bouis 2003). Biofortification with Fe in staple foods provides a cost-effective solution to alleviate Fe deficiency in target populations globally (Nagesh et al. 2012). Biofortification has been considered the “second Green Revolution”. The Bangladesh diet is dominated (about 80 percent) by rice (Hels et al. 2003) and contains vegetables and lentils. Polished rice is a rich source of dietary energy but a poor source of vitamins and minerals. Lentils are a rich source of protein and several essential micronutrients (Fe, Zn, β-caro...

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...s and check for possible chimeric origins. DNA sequences will be compared with those from the GenBank database using BLASTN algorithm.
6. Expected results and discussion
Correlation of the abundance and diversity of the main taxon-specific groups of iron solubilizing bacteria inhabiting the roots will be determined for each Varity and each soil type using culture dependent methods. We expect to correlate the relative abundance of iron solubilizing bacteria in different soil (detected using PCR) and inside the roots of lentil plant (detected using PCR).
7. Statistical analysis
Normality of data will be analyzed using histograms, boxplots and qq-plot. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be performed in SAS statistical package to establish significant differences between the treatments and their interactions. Means will be compared using the Tukey’s Post-hoc, at α=0.05.

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