Transgenic multivitamin corn through biofortification of endosperm with three vitamins representing three distinct metabolic pathways

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 po...

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Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 106; no. 19; pp. 7762 - 7767
Main Authors:	Naqvi, Shaista, Zhu, Changfu, Farre, Gemma, Ramessar, Koreen, Bassie, Ludovic, Breitenbach, Jürgen, Perez Conesa, Dario, Ros, Gaspar, Sandmann, Gerhard, Capell, Teresa, Christou, Paul
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States National Academy of Sciences 12-05-2009 National Acad Sciences
Series:	From the Cover
Subjects:	ascorbic acid Ascorbic Acid - metabolism beta Carotene - metabolism beta-carotene Biochemical pathways biofortification Biological Sciences biosynthesis Breeding Carotenoids Complementary DNA Corn Endosperm enzymes folic acid Folic Acid - metabolism Food, Fortified Functional foods & nutraceuticals gene transfer Gene Transfer Techniques Genetic Engineering - methods Genetic Vectors Homozygote Metabolism Models, Genetic nutrient content Nutrition plant physiology Plants Plants, Genetically Modified Transgenes Transgenic plants Vitamin A - metabolism vitamin content Vitamin deficiency Vitamins Zea mays Zea mays - genetics South Africa
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Summary:	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 β-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.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 Author contributions: C.Z., G.R., G.S., and P.C. designed research; S.N., C.Z., G.F., K.R., L.B., J.B., D.P.C., and T.C. performed research; S.N., C.Z., G.F., K.R., L.B., J.B., D.P.C., G.S., and T.C. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.N., C.Z., G.F., J.B., D.P.C., G.R., G.S., T.C., and P.C. analyzed data; and G.S. and P.C. wrote the paper. 1S.N. and C.Z. contributed equally to this work. Communicated by Gurdev S. Khush, University of California, Davis, CA, February 10, 2009
ISSN:	0027-8424 1091-6490
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.0901412106