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Title:
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Transgenic multivitamin corn through biofortification of endosperm with three vitamins representing three distinct metabolic pathways
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Author:
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Naqvi, Shaista; Zhu, Changfu; Farré Martinez, Gemma; Ramessar, Koreen; Bassie Rene, Ludovic; Breitenbach, Jürgen; Pérez Conesa, Darío; Ros, Gaspar; Sandmann, Gerhard; Capell Capell, Teresa; Christou, Paul
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Notes:
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Vitamin deficiency affects up to 50% of the world’s population,
disproportionately impacting on developing countries where populations
endure monotonous, cereal-rich diets. Transgenic plants
offer an effective way to increase the vitamin content of staple
crops, but thus far it has only been possible to enhance individual
vitamins. We created elite inbred South African transgenic corn
plants in which the levels of 3 vitamins were increased specifically
in the endosperm through the simultaneous modification of 3
separate metabolic pathways. The transgenic kernels contained
169-fold the normal amount of -carotene, 6-fold the normal
amount of ascorbate, and double the normal amount of folate.
Levels of engineered vitamins remained stable at least through to
the T3 homozygous generation. This achievement, which vastly
exceeds any realized thus far by conventional breeding alone,
opens the way for the development of nutritionally complete
cereals to benefit the world’s poorest people.
This study was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain (BFU2007-61413); the Ramon Y Cajal program, Spain; and the Juan de la Cierva program, Spain. S.N. is the recipient of a Ph.D. fellowship from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain (BES-2005-9161). |
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Subject(s):
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-Metabolic engineering
-Folic acid
-Transgenic maize
-Vitamin A fortification |
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Rights:
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(c) National Academy of Sciences, 2009
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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Document type:
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article
publishedVersion |
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Published by:
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National Academy of Sciences
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