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

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发和商业化一种新的玉米品种，这种玉米富含类胡萝卜素，颜色为橙子，产量与当今的商业杂交种竞争。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，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风险较高有关。这项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这些抗氧化剂的水平来实现。最广泛种植的主要作物：玉米。由于玉米用于各种流行的加工食品形式，提高玉米的类胡萝卜素含量提供了一个机会，可以显着增加美国人消费的有益健康的抗氧化剂的量，而不会改变消费者的饮食习惯。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的玉米品种，这些品种的谷物产量也很高。该STTR第二阶段项目提出使用遗传标记来选择与商业化生产的玉米中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。在与类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的基因中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没有发现最有利的等位基因。因此，使用先前开发的遗传标记将使得有利的等位基因能够从不很好地适应美国玉米带的低产种质转移到适于生产用于美国市场的产量竞争性商业F1杂交种的优良自交系中。第二阶段研究的主要目标是使用与第一阶段开发的18个与类胡萝卜素生物合成和稳定性相关的关键基因的有利等位基因相关的用户友好的遗传标记，快速开发用于生产产量竞争力高的类胡萝卜素F1杂交种的固定自交系，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.