High-value products from transgenic maize

Abstract

Maize (also known as corn) is a domesticated cereal grain that has been grown as food and animal feed for tens of thousands of years. It is currently the most widely grown crop in the world, and is used not only for food/feed but also to produce ethanol, industrial starches and oils. Maize is now at the beginning of a new agricultural revolution, where the grains are used as factories to synthesize high-value molecules. In this article we look at the diversity of high-value products from maize, recent technological advances in the field and the emerging regulatory framework that governs how transgenic maize plants and their products are grown, used and traded.

Research in our laboratory is supported by Ministry of Science and Innovation (MEI, Spain) Grant BFU2007-61413; the Ramon y Cajal program (MICINN, Spain); the Pharma-Planta FP6 EU project LSH-2002-1.2.5-2; Center Consolider, MICINN, Spain; Acciones Complementarias (MICINN, Spain) Grant BIO2005-24826; ERC Advanced Grant BIOFORCE to PC; SN and GF are recipients of MICINN PhD Fellowships.