Assessment of the protein quality of 15 new northern adapted cultivars of quality protein maize using amino acid analysis.

Amino acid determinations were carried out on 15 new northern adapted cultivars of quality protein maize (QPM) containing opaque-2 modifier genes to ascertain whether their amino acid scoring patterns could be used to select high-lysine QPM genotypes and to assess their protein quality. Total protein in these cultivars ranged from 8.0 to 10.2% compared to two commercial maize varieties, Dekalb DK435 (7.9%) and Pioneer 3925 (10.3%). Four of these QPM genotypes, QPM-C26, QPM-C21, QPM-C79, and QPM-C59, contained high levels of lysine (4.43-4.58 g of lysine/100 g of protein), whereas the remaining varied from 3.43 to 4.21 g of lysine/100 g of protein, compared to Dekalb DK435 and Pioneer 3925, which contained 2.9 and 3. 1 g of lysine/100 g of protein, respectively. Although lysine is the first limiting amino acid in QPM inbreds, the high-lysine QPM genotypes may supply approximately 70.2-72.6% of human protein requirements, compared to 46.2% for Dekalb DK435 and 50.1% for Pioneer 3925, 55-63% for oats, and 59-60.3% for barley. Northern adapted QPM genotypes may have the potential to increase their lysine content even further, either by an increase in specific high-lysine-containing nonzein proteins, such as the synthesis of factor EF-1a, or by a further reduction in the 19 and 22 kDa alpha-zein in the endosperm or both. This knowledge could assist maize breeders in the selection of new high-performance QPM genotypes with improved protein quality and quantity.