Scientists find way to boost nutritional levels of corn
May 4th, 2010 - 1:23 pm ICT by IANSWashington, May 4 (IANS) An international team of agricultural scientists has found a way to boost the nutritional value of corn and prevent blindness among children.
In Africa and other developing regions, corn is a major staple and hundreds of thousands of children become blind, develop weakened immune systems and die because of diets based largely on corn that lacks sufficient beta-carotene.
Corn contains carotenoids, some of which the body can convert to Vitamin A. Beta-carotene is the best Vitamin A precursor, but only a very small percentage of corn varieties have naturally high beta-carotene levels.
Marilyn Warburton and Edward Buckler, geneticists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and colleagues identified genetic sequences linked to higher beta-carotene levels in corn, showing a cheaper and faster way to identify corn plants that will produce even higher levels.
The researchers surveyed the genetic sequences of corn from around the world through association mapping, a method made possible by recent breakthroughs that accelerate the genetic profiling of crops.
The genetic survey revealed natural variations in one gene sequence linked to higher beta-carotene levels, said an ARS release.
These variations interacted with a gene identified previously, and the best variations of the two genes together led to an 18-fold increase in beta-carotene, according to Warburton.
The report was recently published in Nature Genetics.
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Tags: agricultural research service, agricultural scientists, ars, beta carotene, blindness, buckler, corn plants, corn varieties, gene sequence, genetic profiling, genetic sequences, geneticists, hundreds of thousands, immune systems, natural variations, nature genetics, nutritional value of corn, precursor, staple, warburton