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The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a staple food in many parts of Africa, but the endosperm generally contains low levels of the pro-vitamin A carotenoid β-carotene, leading to vitamin A deficiency disease in populations relying on cereal-based diets. However, maize endosperm does accumulate high levels of othe...

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Autores principales: Berman, Judit, Zorrilla-López, Uxue, Sandmann, Gerhard, Capell, Teresa, Christou, Paul, Zhu, Changfu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5751118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29186806
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18122515
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author Berman, Judit
Zorrilla-López, Uxue
Sandmann, Gerhard
Capell, Teresa
Christou, Paul
Zhu, Changfu
author_facet Berman, Judit
Zorrilla-López, Uxue
Sandmann, Gerhard
Capell, Teresa
Christou, Paul
Zhu, Changfu
author_sort Berman, Judit
collection PubMed
description Maize (Zea mays L.) is a staple food in many parts of Africa, but the endosperm generally contains low levels of the pro-vitamin A carotenoid β-carotene, leading to vitamin A deficiency disease in populations relying on cereal-based diets. However, maize endosperm does accumulate high levels of other carotenoids, including zeaxanthin, which is derived from β-carotene via two hydroxylation reactions. Blocking these reactions could therefore improve the endosperm β-carotene content. Accordingly, we used RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the endogenous ZmBCH1 and ZmBCH2 genes, which encode two non-heme di-iron carotenoid β-hydroxylases. The genes were silenced in a range of maize genetic backgrounds by introgressing the RNAi cassette, allowing us to determine the impact of ZmBCH1/ZmBCH2 silencing in diverse hybrids. The β-carotene content of the endosperm increased substantially in all hybrids in which ZmBCH2 was silenced, regardless of whether or not ZmBCH1 was silenced simultaneously. However, the β-carotene content did not change significantly in C17 hybrids (M7 × C17 and M13 × C17) compared to C17 alone, because ZmBCH2 is already expressed at negligible levels in the C17 parent. Our data indicate that ZmBCH2 is primarily responsible for the conversion of β-carotene to zeaxanthin in maize endosperm.
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spelling pubmed-57511182018-01-08 The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm Berman, Judit Zorrilla-López, Uxue Sandmann, Gerhard Capell, Teresa Christou, Paul Zhu, Changfu Int J Mol Sci Article Maize (Zea mays L.) is a staple food in many parts of Africa, but the endosperm generally contains low levels of the pro-vitamin A carotenoid β-carotene, leading to vitamin A deficiency disease in populations relying on cereal-based diets. However, maize endosperm does accumulate high levels of other carotenoids, including zeaxanthin, which is derived from β-carotene via two hydroxylation reactions. Blocking these reactions could therefore improve the endosperm β-carotene content. Accordingly, we used RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the endogenous ZmBCH1 and ZmBCH2 genes, which encode two non-heme di-iron carotenoid β-hydroxylases. The genes were silenced in a range of maize genetic backgrounds by introgressing the RNAi cassette, allowing us to determine the impact of ZmBCH1/ZmBCH2 silencing in diverse hybrids. The β-carotene content of the endosperm increased substantially in all hybrids in which ZmBCH2 was silenced, regardless of whether or not ZmBCH1 was silenced simultaneously. However, the β-carotene content did not change significantly in C17 hybrids (M7 × C17 and M13 × C17) compared to C17 alone, because ZmBCH2 is already expressed at negligible levels in the C17 parent. Our data indicate that ZmBCH2 is primarily responsible for the conversion of β-carotene to zeaxanthin in maize endosperm. MDPI 2017-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5751118/ /pubmed/29186806 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18122515 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Berman, Judit
Zorrilla-López, Uxue
Sandmann, Gerhard
Capell, Teresa
Christou, Paul
Zhu, Changfu
The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm
title The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm
title_full The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm
title_fullStr The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm
title_full_unstemmed The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm
title_short The Silencing of Carotenoid β-Hydroxylases by RNA Interference in Different Maize Genetic Backgrounds Increases the β-Carotene Content of the Endosperm
title_sort silencing of carotenoid β-hydroxylases by rna interference in different maize genetic backgrounds increases the β-carotene content of the endosperm
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5751118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29186806
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18122515
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