A Recipe for Crop Improvement: A Dash of Yeast and a Pinch of Weeds.

The three most important factors in buying a home are, location, location, location! Like most clichés, this real estate adage has worn out its welcome. However, we would like to coopt this phrase to address the importance of nutrient partitioning within plants. By identifying the relationship between calcium location in the plant cell and nutrient bioavailability, the plant characteristics leading to maximal calcium absorption and utilization by humans can be identified. Knowledge of plant cellular and molecular targets controlling calcium location in plants is emerging. These insights should allow for better strategies for increasing the nutritional content of foods. In particular, the use of preparation-free elemental imaging technologies such as Synchrotron x-ray fluorescence (SXRF) microscopy in plant biology may allow researchers to conceptualize the relationship between subcellular location and nutrient bioavailability. These approaches may lead to better strategies for optimizing the location of calcium within the plant to maximize its absorption and utilization from dietary fruits and vegetables. These modified foods could be part of a diet for children and adults identified as at-risk for low calcium intake or absorption with the ultimate goal of decreasing the incidence and severity of inadequate bone mineralization.