Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 19, Pages 7762-7767Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0901412106
Keywords
folic acid; metabolic engineering; transgenic maize; vitamin A fortification; vitamin C
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Funding
- Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain [BFU2007-61413, BES-2005-9161]
- Ramon Y Cajal program, Spain
- Juan de la Cierva program, Spain
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
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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 beta-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.
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