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

• Published in: Journal of applied genetics 2021-09, Vol.62 (3), p.419-429
• Main Authors: Baveja, Aanchal, Muthusamy, Vignesh, Panda, Kusuma Kumari, Zunjare, Rajkumar Uttamrao, Das, Abhijit Kumar, Chhabra, Rashmi, Mishra, Subhra Jyotshna, Mehta, Brijesh Kumar, Saha, Supradip, Hossain, Firoz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Genetics and Genomics; Beta carotene; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carotene; Corn; Essential nutrients; Genes; Genomics; Genotyping; Health problems; Human Genetics; Hybrids; Hydroxylase; Life Sciences; Lycopene; Lysine; Markers; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Nutrients; Nutrition; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Genetics • Original Paper; Sweetcorn; Sweetness; Tryptophan; Vegetables; β-Carotene
• ISSN: 1234-1983; 2190-3883
• DOI: 10.1007/s13353-021-00633-4

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 BC 1 F 1 , BC 2 F 1 and BC 2 F 2 . 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.