Contact: Science Press Team More nutritious corn for kids around the world
New research may help plant breeders develop corn (known as maize in many parts of the world), with higher levels of an important nutrient. The body uses this nutrient to make vitamin A, which is very important for staying healthy.
Vitamin A deficiency causes eye disease in 40 million children each year and places 140 to 250 million at risk for a variety of health disorders, according to study author Carlos Harjes of Cornell University and his colleagues. There are millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions whose diets are based primarily on maize, so improving vitamin A levels from this food could be an important step toward improving their health. The maize itself doesn’t actually have vitamin A. It has compounds called “provitamins” that the body then uses to make vitamin A. One of these compounds is called beta-carotene. Dr. Harjes and his colleagues analyzed different types of maize and figured out that they vary widely in their levels of beta-carotene and other A provitamins. The difference seems to be caused by variations in a gene called the lcyE gene. Breeding plants with the desired lcyE genes might therefore lead to maize with higher provitamin A levels. Unlike genetically modified plants, which contain genes from other organisms, these maize plants would contain all their own, naturally occurring genes. This study appears in the 18 January issue of the journal Science. ###
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