Iron and zinc availability in maize lines

Progress update: Crop development of biofortified staple food crops under HarvestPlus

“…Zinc content in maize ranges from 17-42 ppm [55], and elite tropical maize synthetics and hybrids with more than 80% of the target increment (+12 ppm additional zinc) have been identified in breeding programs. Frequently, high zinc maize lines also have high protein content (called Quality Protein Maize, QPM).…”

Maize inbreds from different heterotic groups as favorable sources for increased potential bioavailability of magnesium, iron, manganese and zinc

“…For inbreds belong to Independent source, lower P phy/Pi and PA/Mg ratios were found (7.21 and 0.80, respectively). Among BSSS lines, the lowest PA/β-carotene was present in grain of L10 (491.3), which along with relative low values of PA/Mg and PA/Mn (0.73 and 180.7, respectively) could indicate their improved bioavailability (Queiroz et al, 2011). The lowest PA/Mn ratio among all examined lines was present in L27 (146.1), the inbred from Lancaster heterotic group with relatively low PA/β-carotene ratio (663.05), which could be reflected on better Mn availability.…”

“…Only in grain of Lancaster heterotic group, Pphy reduction is followed by Zn content increase, while in grain of inbreds from Independent source, variations in Mg, Fe, and Mn contents are independent on Pphy status, indicating that the genotypes from this group (i.e. inbreds with higher Mg, Fe, and Mn status in grain), could serve as favorable source of improved Mg, Fe and Mn absorption (Ma et al, 2007;Queiroz et al, 2011).…”

“…This could mean that genotypes from Lancaster group are efficient to acquire Fe and Mn and from BSSS to acquire Zn from substrate poor in their content (Kovačević et al, 2004). Based on the molar ratios between PA and mineral elements, such as PA/Zn and PA/Fe, it is possible to determine genotypes (or foods) with potentially high Fe and Zn bioavailability (Ma et al, 2007;Queiroz et al, 2011). According to relatively high content of examined mineral elements, lower mean values of PA/Fe and PA/ Mn (98.59 and 221.94, respectively) were observed in grain of Lancaster group (Table 2).…”

Chemical composition and effects of micronized corn bran on iron bioavailability in rats

“…According to Lin et al (2005) and Nakajima et al (2012), the phytate content varies considerably between different corn genotypes. Therefore, flours from different cultivars may also have different molar ratios (Queiroz et al, 2011) thus influencing mineral bioavailability, which might explains one of the differences found in their study. With regard to the negative influence of DF on mineral bioavailability (Lestienne et al, 2005), no interference was found in our study although the product being evaluated had high concentration (73.4%) of this nutrient.…”