Elucidating the Genetic Architecture of ProVitamin A and Vitamin E Biosynthesis in Seed
The collaborative research funded by this grant is directed at identifying a subset of the ~40,000 genes in the corn genome, that together work to determine the levels of five essential and limiting dietary vitamins in corn kernels: vitamin E and the four B vitamins, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin) and B6 (pyridoxine). By combining approaches similar to those used in the Human Genome project, the researchers will identify special variations in these "vitamin" genes, and how to put them together to generate high amounts of vitamins in corn kernels. An important outcome of this research will be the knowledge by which to enhance these micronutrient levels in corn kernels such that diets in which maize is a major component provide a balanced nutritional content. In addition, this research will provide guiding principles for parallel efforts in other agricultural crops and thus enable predictive breeding and engineering of more nutritious crops worldwide. Finally, integration of research with education within the project will permit training of the next generation of plant scientists with knowledge of plant genetics, breeding, genomics, biochemistry, and bioinformatics. This project, funded by the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program is a continuation of the project "Elucidating the Genetic Architecture of ProVitamin A and Vitamin E Biosynthesis in Seed" (NSF IOS 0922493). Our current NSF Plant Genome Research Program project “A genome-level approach to balancing the vitamin content of maize grain” (IOS 1546657) began in August 2016.
The Maize Nutrigenomics website is maintained and hosted by the Buell Lab in the Plant Biology Department at Michigan State University.
What's New
7 August 2018
A JBrowse instance of the AGP v4 B73 genome with 79 developmental gene atlas samples released.
August 2016
New NSF funded project -- "RESEARCH-PGR: A Genome-level Approach to Balancing the Vitamin Content of Maize Grain" IOS-1546657 that will explore genetics of Vitamin E and Vitamin B biosynthesis in maize kernels.
15 January 2015
Search Tools -- We have added Maize and Arabidopsis GWAS data available for retrieval.
4 December 2014
BLAST Search -- Our BLAST Search page has been upgraded from WU-BLAST to NCBI-BLAST.
13 June 2013
Search Tools -- A searchable database with transcript and protein data from 25 maize genotypes is now accessible under the Search Tools tab. BLAST search is also now available.
Downloads -- Transcript and protein sequences for 25 maize genotypes are now available for download.
Maintenance Notice
We have planned server maintenance on the first Wednesday of every month. Web pages may be unavailable or only partially functional during server maintenance.
