Plant iron store revealed, as described in an article in ScienceExpress 2 November 2006. A team of researchers led by Mary Lou Guerinot of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire has used a combination of gene studies and x-ray imaging techniques to work out where iron is stored in plant seeds. They found that the iron is stored in the developing vascular (fluid transport) tissue in the seed and involves a protein named VIT1, which transports the iron into internal storage depots inside plant cells called vacuoles. The researchers are hoping their findings can be used to develop grain crops with higher iron content." (ScienceExpress is the advanced online publication site for the Journal Science)

Editorial Comment: Iron is an essential mineral for plants and animals, and the decreasing availability of it after Noah's flood, was probably why some animals took to scavenging and predation. For example, mosquitoes live on nectar and plant juices, but females cannot get enough iron to make eggs from these sources. This is why female mosquitoes seek out a meal of blood when they are ready to lay their eggs. If plants had a higher iron content mosquitoes wouldn't need to bite people.

Plants get their iron from the soil, and in the original good world described in Genesis the mineral content of the soils would have been sufficient for the needs of the plants, and for the animals and people that ate them. The worldwide flood of Noah degraded the soil and we know from agricultural history many places in the world have soils lacking in essential minerals. Plants have degenerated since then, as well, and may not be able to accumulate and store iron as well as they did in the original good world. Studies, such as the one described above, may help us to find out how and why many plants are no longer a good source of iron. Perhaps even to redevelop iron rich weed food sources for mosquitoes and eliminate malaria for good. (Ref. degeneration, diet, nutrition)

Evidence News 22 November 2006