STTR Phase I: Utilizing Natural Variation to Increase the Antioxidant Carotenoid Content in High Yielding Corn Varieties

STTR 第一阶段：利用自然变异提高高产玉米品种的抗氧化类胡萝卜素含量

• 批准号: 1721692
• 负责人: Evan Rocheford
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: NUTRAMAIZE LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1721692&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Utilizing; Natural; Variation

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project will be the development and commercialization of a novel variety of corn that is high in carotenoids and orange in color, and with yields that are competitive with today's commercial hybrids. In the diets of Americans, two important antioxidant carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, are in low abundance. This deficiency has been associated with higher risk for degenerative diseases such as Age Related Macular Degeneration, and potentially, dementia. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to get American's to consume more lutein and zeaxanthin, which will be achieved by increasing significantly the levels of these antioxidants in the most widely grown staple crop: Corn. Since corn is used in a wide variety of popular processed food formats, improving the carotenoid content of corn provides an opportunity to significantly increase the amount of health benefiting antioxidants that Americans consume, without changing consumers eating habits. However, in order for this strategy to be economically feasible, corn varieties that are high in carotenoids must be developed that are also high in grain yield. This STTR Phase I project proposes to develop genetic markers for favorable alleles of genes associated with carotenoid biosynthesis and stability. There is considerable genetic variation in genes associated with carotenoid biosynthesis and stability, however, the most favorable alleles are typically not found in varieties that are commercially relevant to US corn production. Thus, the development of genetic markers will enable favorable alleles to be moved from lower yielding germplasm that is not well adapted to the US Corn Belt into elite inbreds suitable for the production of yield-competitive commercial F1 hybrids for the US market. The primary goal of this Phase I research is to create user-friendly genetic markers associated with favorable alleles for 12 key genes associated with carotenoid biosynthesis and stability. These markers will then be validated for efficacy by testing their ability to create progenies with higher carotenoid production, particularly lutein and zeaxanthin. This will result in a set of markers and experimental breeding materials that can be used to rapidly develop fixed inbreds for use in the production of yield-competitive high carotenoid F1 hybrids.

该小企业技术转让 (STTR) 项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是开发和商业化一种新型玉米品种，该品种富含类胡萝卜素，颜色为橙色，其产量可与当今的商业杂交品种相媲美。 在美国人的饮食中，两种重要的抗氧化剂类胡萝卜素——叶黄素和玉米黄质——的含量很低。 这种缺陷与退行性疾病（例如年龄相关性黄斑变性）以及潜在的痴呆症的较高风险有关。拟议研究的最终目标是让美国人消耗更多的叶黄素和玉米黄质，这将通过显着增加最广泛种植的主要作物：玉米中这些抗氧化剂的水平来实现。由于玉米用于多种流行的加工食品中，提高玉米的类胡萝卜素含量提供了一个机会，可以在不改变消费者饮食习惯的情况下显着增加美国人消耗的有益健康的抗氧化剂的量。然而，为了使这一策略在经济上可行，必须开发类胡萝卜素含量高且谷物产量高的玉米品种。 STTR 第一阶段项目建议开发与类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的基因的有利等位基因的遗传标记。与类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的基因存在相当大的遗传变异，然而，在与美国玉米生产商业相关的品种中通常找不到最有利的等位基因。因此，遗传标记的开发将使有利的等位基因从不太适应美国玉米带的低产种质转移到适合为美国市场生产具有产量竞争力的商业F1杂种的优良近交系。该第一阶段研究的主要目标是为类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的 12 个关键基因创建与有利等位基因相关的用户友好的遗传标记。然后，将通过测试这些标记物产生具有更高类胡萝卜素产量（特别是叶黄素和玉米黄质）的后代的能力来验证这些标记物的功效。这将产生一组标记和实验育种材料，可用于快速开发固定近交系，用于生产具有产量竞争力的高类胡萝卜素 F1 杂种。