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Development of multinutrient-rich biofortified sweet corn hybrids through genomics-assisted selection of shrunken2, opaque2, lcyE and crtRB1 genes

  • Plant Genetics • Original Paper
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Abstract

Sweet corn has gained worldwide popularity. Traditional sweet corn possesses low concentration of essential nutrients such as lysine (0.15–0.25%), tryptophan (0.03–0.04%) and provitamin-A (proA 3–4 ppm), and deficiency leads to serious health problems in humans. Here, stacking of shrunken2 (sh2), opaque2 (o2), lycopene epsilon cyclase (lcyE) and β‐carotene hydroxylase (crtRB1) genes  were undertaken in the parents of four hybrids viz., APQH1, APHQ4, APHQ5 and APHQ7 using marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB). Gene-linked markers (umc2276 and umc1320) for sh2, while gene-based markers for o2 (umc1066 and phi057), lcyE (5′TE-InDel) and crtRB1 (3′TE-InDel), were used for genotyping in BC1F1, BC2F1 and BC2F2. Selected backcross progenies showed high recovery of recurrent parent genome (92.4–97.7%). The reconstituted sweet corn hybrids possessed significantly high lysine (0.390%), tryptophan (0.082%) and proA (21.14 ppm), coupled with high kernel sweetness (brix 18.96%). The improved sweet corn hybrids had high cob yield (12.22–15.33 t/ha) across three environments. These newly developed biofortified sweet corn hybrids possess great significance in providing balanced nutrition. This is the first report of combining sh2, o2, lcyE and crtRB1 genes for enrichment of sweet corn hybrids with multiple essential nutrients.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to ICAR-IIMR, Ludhiana, for providing the off-season nursery at Hyderabad. The help of Mr. Manish Kapasia, technical assistant, for management of field activities and pollination programme is thankfully acknowledged.

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Funding

Financial support was from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.

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Author notes

  1. Abhijit Kumar Das

    Present address: ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana, India

  2. Brijesh Kumar Mehta

    Present address: ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

    Aanchal Baveja, Vignesh Muthusamy, Rajkumar Uttamrao Zunjare, Abhijit Kumar Das, Rashmi Chhabra, Subhra Jyotshna Mishra, Brijesh Kumar Mehta, Supradip Saha & Firoz Hossain

  2. AMITY Institute of Biotechnology, AMITY University, Sector 125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Aanchal Baveja & Kusuma Kumari Panda

Authors
  1. Aanchal Baveja
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  2. Vignesh Muthusamy
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  3. Kusuma Kumari Panda
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  4. Rajkumar Uttamrao Zunjare
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  5. Abhijit Kumar Das
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  6. Rashmi Chhabra
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  8. Brijesh Kumar Mehta
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  10. Firoz Hossain
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Contributions

Conduct of the experiments, AB; generation of backcross populations, VM and AKD; phenotypic evaluation, BKM and RUZ; statistical analysis, RUZ; biochemical analysis, AB, SJM and SS; genotyping, AB and RC; drafting of manuscript, AB, VM and FH; design of experiment, FH and KKP.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Firoz Hossain.

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Communicated by: Izabela Pawłowicz

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Baveja, A., Muthusamy, V., Panda, K.K. et al. Development of multinutrient-rich biofortified sweet corn hybrids through genomics-assisted selection of shrunken2, opaque2, lcyE and crtRB1 genes. J Appl Genetics 62, 419–429 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-021-00633-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-021-00633-4

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