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Mutant Series: IRON MAN (IMA)

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-  Guess, how many people are suffering from I ron- d eficiency induced a nemia (IDA)? -  It's more than one billion worldwide!   The number is incredibly big. It was even difficult for me to believe at the first time. The main cause of the disease is iron (Fe) deficiency. Fe is by mass the most common element on earth. Plants uptake Fe and as a consumer, we obtain Fe from the edible parts of plants. Unfortunately, free forms of Fe is taken up by plants and some parts of the soil which is rare. This is how such an abundant element becomes unavailable. Simply, finding the plant capable of uptaking more Fe or efficient of Fe uptake from the Fe-deficient soil will help to provide good enough amount of Fe in our food and get rid of IDA.  The image is collected from wanelo.com Recently in a preprint, there is a report about a short 19 C-terminal amino acid sequence consensus motif which is indispensable for Fe uptake in plants. They named it IRON MAN (IMA) . It's base