Menkir Abebe, Dieng Ibnou, Mengesha Wende, Meseka Silvestro, Maziya-Dixon Bussie, Alamu Oladeji Emmanuel, Bossey Bunmi, Muhyideen Oyekunle, Ewool Manfred, Coulibaly Mmadou Mory
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Oyo Road, Ibadan PMP 5320, Nigeria.
Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria PMB 1044, Nigeria.
Plants (Basel). 2021 Jul 31;10(8):1580. doi: 10.3390/plants10081580.
Maize is consumed in different traditional diets as a source of macro- and micro-nutrients across Africa. Significant investment has thus been made to develop maize with high provitamin A content to complement other interventions for alleviating vitamin A deficiencies. The current breeding focus on increasing β-carotene levels to develop biofortified maize may affect the synthesis of other beneficial carotenoids. The changes in carotenoid profiles, which are commonly affected by environmental factors, may also lead to a trade-off with agronomic performance. The present study was therefore conducted to evaluate provitamin A biofortified maize hybrids across diverse field environments. The results showed that the difference in accumulating provitamin A and other beneficial carotenoids across variable growing environments was mainly regulated by the genetic backgrounds of the hybrids. Many hybrids, accumulating more than 10 µg/g of provitamin A, produced higher grain yields (>3600 kg/ha) than the orange commercial maize hybrid (3051 kg/ha). These hybrids were also competitive, compared to the orange commercial maize hybrid, in accumulating lutein and zeaxanthins. Our study showed that breeding for enhanced provitamin A content had no adverse effect on grain yield in the biofortified hybrids evaluated in the regional trials. Furthermore, the results highlighted the possibility of developing broadly adapted hybrids containing high levels of beneficial carotenoids for commercialization in areas with variable maize growing conditions in Africa.
在非洲，玉米作为宏量和微量营养素的来源，被用于不同的传统饮食中。因此，人们投入了大量资金来培育富含维生素A原的玉米，以补充其他缓解维生素A缺乏的干预措施。目前培育的重点是提高β-胡萝卜素水平以开发生物强化玉米，这可能会影响其他有益类胡萝卜素的合成。类胡萝卜素谱的变化通常受环境因素影响，也可能导致与农艺性能的权衡。因此，本研究旨在评估在不同田间环境下的维生素A原生物强化玉米杂交种。结果表明，在不同生长环境中积累维生素A原和其他有益类胡萝卜素的差异主要受杂交种遗传背景的调控。许多积累超过10μg/g维生素A原的杂交种，其谷物产量（>3600kg/公顷）高于橙色商业玉米杂交种（3051kg/公顷）。与橙色商业玉米杂交种相比，这些杂交种在积累叶黄素和玉米黄质方面也具有竞争力。我们的研究表明，在区域试验中评估的生物强化杂交种中，提高维生素A原含量的育种对谷物产量没有不利影响。此外，研究结果突出了开发含有高水平有益类胡萝卜素的广泛适应性杂交种，以便在非洲玉米生长条件多变的地区商业化的可能性。
