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

这一小型企业技术转移(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，这种玉米富含胡萝卜素和橙色，产量与当今的商业杂交玉米具有竞争力。在美国人的饮食中，叶黄素和玉米黄质这两种重要的抗氧化剂类胡萝卜素的含量很低。这种缺陷与患退行性疾病的风险较高有关，例如年龄相关性黄斑变性，以及潜在的痴呆症。这项拟议中的研究的最终目标是为美国人提供一种消费更多叶黄素和玉米黄质的方法，这将通过大幅提高美国玉米中这些抗氧化剂的水平来实现。S说，玉米是美国种植最广泛的主食作物。由于玉米被广泛用于各种流行的加工食品格式，提高玉米的类胡萝卜素含量提供了一个机会，在不改变消费者饮食习惯的情况下，显著增加美国人消费的有益于健康的抗氧化剂的数量。然而，为了使这一战略在经济上可行，必须开发出富含类胡萝卜素的玉米品种，同时也要提高谷物产量。这一STTR第二阶段项目建议使用遗传标记来选择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，以用于商业化生产。与类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的基因有相当大的遗传变异，然而，最有利的等位基因通常不会在与美国玉米生产有关的商业品种中找到。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力的商业F1杂交种的优秀自交系。这项第二阶段研究的主要目标是使用在第一阶段开发的与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的用户友好型遗传标记，以快速开发固定近交系，用于生产适合大规模商业应用的具有产量竞争力的高胡萝卜素F1杂交种。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.