Brazilian scientists have developed a transgenic lettuce which has a folic acid content far superior to conventional varieties, thought to prevent malformations in pregnancy.
Recall that folic acid, or vitamin B9, is an indispensable help during pregnancy, as it helps prevent neural tube defects, that is, malformations that may arise in the brain or spinal cord.
In Brazil there is a very high incidence of cases of anencephaly, one of the most common neural tube abnormalities. It occurs in one of every 700 cases, so they have thought of genetically modifying certain foods, such as lettuce by introducing a gene that increases the production in the plant of the molecules that produce folic acid into the genome of common lettuce.
When genetically modified, plants that produce up to 15 times more folic acid than common lettuce, and with the modification in the parts responsible for photosynthesis the increase in the production of vitamin B9 was twice.
Folic acid is found naturally in some foods such as asparagus, lettuce, tomato, spinach, red beet, orange, avocado, strawberries, grapefruit, banana, peas, beans, Corn and whole wheat bread.
But to ensure that folic acid stores are sufficient at the time the baby's neural tube is closed, it is recommended to start taking a daily supplement of 400 micrograms from three months before starting to look for pregnancy, since that Structure is formed in the first weeks of pregnancy, even before knowing that you are pregnant.
To give you an idea of ​​equivalence, two leaves of the transgenic lettuce guarantee 70 percent of the vitamin needed daily by the pregnant woman to prevent malformations in the fetus.
