Researchers have shown that a gene called FRO7 is vital for efficient photosynthesis and for iron metabolism, processes necessary for producing a healthy plant and a nutritious food source.

In this study, Guerinot and her colleagues provide molecular evidence that FRO7, a gene in the FRO family, is involved in chloroplast iron acquisition and is required for efficient photosynthesis. The FRO family is a group of proteins that transfers electrons from ferric iron (Fe3+) to reduce it to another kind of iron (Fe2+). This same lab showed that this process (reduction of iron) was essential for plants to take up iron into the roots from the soil in a study published in 1999 in Nature.

Considering that one-third of the soil worldwide is iron deficient, this research provides insights as to how plants acquire iron, allocate it to the different parts of the plant and the cell, and survive under iron limiting conditions. These pose an great impact on efforts to improve plant growth and crop yields, as well as its nutritional qualities.