Molecular Screening of maize genotypes for lysine, tryptophan and β-carotene using functional markers
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Date
2023-07
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CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
Maize is the 3rd most significant cereal crop after wheat and rice with high nutritional value. But it is
deficient in certain nutrients like essential amino acids lysine, tryptophan and β- carotene. Presence of
recessive allele opaque-2 linked with SSR markers umc1066, phi112, phi057 leads to high lysine and
tryptophan content. Similarly, presence of crtRB1 gene linked with crtRB1 marker increase β-carotene
content. Therefore, this study was aimed to screen opaque-2 and crtRB1 genes in 25 maize inbred lines
using these functional markers. These maize inbred lines were grown in greenhouse and DNA was
isolated using CTAB method. PCR was performed using umc1066, phi112, phi057 and crtRB1
markers.In addition to this thirty one more markers were used for genetic diversity analysis. Analysis of
PCR products was done using UV gel documentation system. Genetic diversity analysis was performed
using NTSYS-pc software and high degree of polymorphism was found ranging from 0.37-0.80 and
heterozygosity ranging from 0.49 to 0.84. Biochemical estimation of lysine, tryptophan and β- carotene
content was done using maize flour. The relation between the amplicon size of PCR product and
biochemical estimated content was drawn. It was found that the inbred line LM-17 with the favourable
allele 153bp using phi112, 144bp using umc1066, 157bp using phi057 had the highest lysine and
tryptophan content. The inbred line HKI-327T with favorable allele (296+543) using crtRB1 marker had
the highest β-carotene content (19.86 ppm). The best possible combination is using the LM-17 inbred
line because it is having highest lysine content (0.44%) and high tryptophan content (0.20%). In the
similar way to increase β-carotene content, HKI-327T is a promising donor line having the highest β carotene content that can be utilized in marker-assisted breeding for introgression of trait for enhanced
provitamin A into agronomically superior lines by tracking the favourable alleles. The pyramiding of
both these genes with other genes responsible for enhancing the nutritional value of elite maize varieties
can provide a novel strategy for biofortification programmes. Thus, this study helps to pave the ways to
combat the problem of nutritional deficiency and hidden hunger.