STTR Phase II: Developing High Carotenoid Orange Corn for Large-scale Commercial Adoption

STTR 第二阶段：开发高类胡萝卜素橙玉米以进行大规模商业应用

• 批准号: 1926952
• 负责人: Evan Rocheford
• 金额: $ 74.74万
• 依托单位: NUTRAMAIZE LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1926952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; II; Developing; Carotenoid

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 provide a way for Americans to consume more lutein and zeaxanthin, which will be achieved by increasing significantly the levels of these antioxidants in the U.S.'s 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 also are high in grain yield. This STTR Phase II project proposes to use genetic markers to select for favorable alleles of genes associated with carotenoid biosynthesis and stability in corn bred for commercial production. 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 use of genetic markers developed previously 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 II research is to use the user-friendly genetic markers associated with favorable alleles for 18 key genes associated with carotenoid biosynthesis and stability developed in Phase I to rapidly develop fixed inbreds for use in the production of yield-competitive high carotenoid F1 hybrids suitable for large-scale commercial applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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（如年龄相关性黄斑变性）和潜在的痴呆症的较高风险有关。拟议研究的最终目标是为美国人提供一种摄入更多叶黄素和玉米黄质的方法，这将通过显着提高美国种植最广泛的主粮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 II 期项目建议使用遗传标记来选择与类胡萝卜素生物合成和商业生产玉米稳定性相关的有利等位基因。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，使用先前开发的遗传标记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性的商业F1杂种的优良近交系中。这项 II 期研究的主要目标是利用与 I 期开发的类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的 18 个关键基因的有利等位基因相关的用户友好的遗传标记，快速开发固定自交系，用于生产适合大规模商业应用的产量竞争性高类胡萝卜素 F1 杂交种。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得通过 使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。