Micronutrient and Functional Compounds Biofortification of Maize Grains

Abstract

Maize, in addition to being the main staple food in many countries, is used in the production of hundreds of products. It is rich in compounds with potential benefits to health, such as carotenoids, phenolic compounds, vitamin E, and minerals that act as cofactors for antioxidant enzymes. Many of these compounds have been neglected thus far in the scientific literature. Nevertheless, deficiencies in the precursors of vitamin A and some minerals, such as iron and zinc, in maize, in association with the great genetic variability in its cultivars and our genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic knowledge of this species make targeted biofortification strategies for maize promising. This review discusses the potential of the main microconstituents found in maize with a focus on studies aimed at biofortification.

Diversity of Maize Kernels from a Breeding Program for Protein Quality III: Ionome Profiling

“…The preponderance of univariate relationships was confirmed, though indirectly, by the small variance (R 2 ) in both nutrients explained by C:N variation (Table 3). These results suggest that selection for target [nutrients] may not reduce densities of other nutrients [39].…”

“…However, a genetic approach may not always be adequate due to several interacting factors, including lack of readily available germplasm, unfavorable genetic, physiological, and chemical interactions within the ionome [38], and negative relationships with grain yield [17,20]. These perceived shortcomings of genetic biofortification recently led to promoting molecular breeding [38,39] as a means of improving [nutrient] and bioavailability of micronutrients in maize and other grain crops.…”

“…Nevertheless, the development of multi-nutrient rich maize cultivars would help achieve nutritional security in a more holistic and sustainable way by reducing micronutrient malnutrition [39], especially in the Global South [3]. Understanding the dynamics of the ionome plays an important role for this objective [19,43].…”

“…We constructed a comprehensive picture of diversity and interrelationships within and among most of the physical and biochemical constituents of the maize kernel. Earlier studies targeting macro-and micronutrients in maize identified sources of genetic variation [12], densities of single and multiple nutrients [18], relationships between target and non-target nutrients [41], and potential for genetic enhancement of nutritional quality through breeding and selection [39,40]. In its early phases of development [41], biofortification breeding was focused on the most limiting nutrients in human diets such as Zn and Fe, without considering other nutrients such as Ca or Mg [42].…”

Influence of selenium, copper and zinc on phenolic compounds in rye malt

“…Plant genetics and cultivar, soil composition and growing conditions, maturity state and post-harvest conditions are effective on the quantity and quality of the polyphenols present in plant foods (Ozcan et al, 2014;Gani et al, 2012;Ondrejovič et al, 2014), Messias (2012), reported that mineral fertilization during the growing season increase the contents of some phenolic compounds, as maintenance of mineral levels is a prerequisite to provide co-factors for many enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway. Mineral micronutrients, such as zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu), as well as trace elements, including selenium (Se), have important metabolic functions, acting as cofactors for a number of antioxidant enzymes (Messias et al, 2013). Cu is known as an essential micronutrient for the function of copper-zinc superoxide dismutases (SOD) and catalase (CAT) which are the most important reactive oxygen species scavenger enzymes.…”