Asia Maize Youth Innovators Award Vignesh Muthusamy

1. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
Vignesh Muthusamy
Scientist (Senior Scale)
ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute
New Delhi, INDIA
13th Asian Maize Conference and Expert Consultation on
“Maize for Food, Feed, Nutrition and Environmental Security”
2018 MAIZE-ASIA YOUTH INNOVATORS AWARD
Focus: Development of biofortified provitamin-A rich QPM hybrids

2. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute Exploring opportunities to biofortify maize for proA
-journey since 2009
• Less variation for β-carotene in Indian maize germplasm (~2 µg/g)
• Kernel colour cannot be used as selection criteria for β-carotene – Phenotypic
selection difficult!!

3. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute Availability of crtRB1 gene based inbreds
-from CIMMYT-HarvestPlus in 2010
Genetic and molecular characterization of Indian maize germplasm using crtRB1
gene-based marker - Less frequency of crtRB1 favourable allele (<3%)
• Inbreds with high β-carotene (>15 µg/g) and PCR based markers for
crtRB1 was made available by CIMMYT-HarvestPlus

4. Accelerated development of proA rich maize
-through molecular breeding
ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
Hybrid Parentage Maturity Adaptation
Vivek QPM 9 VQL1 x VQL2 Extra early NHZ and PZ
Vivek Hybrid 27 V335 x V345 Extra early NEPZ and PZ
HM4 HKI1105 x HKI323 Medium Across the country
HM8 HKI1105 x HKI161 Medium PZ
*QPM genotypes
Parental crosses attempted during 2010
crtRB1 introgressed inbreds was ready by 2012
Reconstituted hybrids evaluated by 2013
Key for success
 Material sharing
 Knowledge sharing
 Off-season nursery facility

5. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
β-carotene enrichment in hybrids
Target level set by
HarvestPlus is 15 µg/g
Improved Vivek QPM 9 with
high proA nominated for
AICRP testing - kharif 2014

6. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute Performance of proA hybrids in AICRP-Maize trials
Released as ‘Pusa Vivek QPM9 Improved’ - India’s first proA
rich maize for NHZ and PZ during 2017
Characters APQH9
Provitamin-A (µg/g) 8.15
% tryptophan in protein 0.74
% lysine in protein 2.67
Avg. grain yield-NHZ (kg/ha) 5588
Potential yield-NHZ (kg/ha) 7968
Avg. grain yield-PZ (kg/ha) 5916
Potential yield-PZ (kg/ha) 9368
Policy support was the key
to success

7. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
Further improvement of proA in maize
 Pyramiding of crtRB1 and lcyE genes
in elite QPM hybrids (HQPM1,
HQPM4, HQPM5 and HQPM7)
 Under final year of AICRP testing
10 QPM + proA hybrids in elite background are available

8. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
SKUAST, Srinagar (kharif 2018)
ICAR-VPKAS, Almora (kharif 2018)
Also conducted at CSKHPKV,
Bajaura and CAU, Shillong
Dissemination through networking with national partners

9. ICAR-MaizeBiofortificationNetwork
Effects of QPM + ProA maize on poultry and humans
1 2 3 4 5
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
BWG
FCR
500
550
600
650
Diets
BWGFCR(FI/BWG)
1: DPR Maize, 2: Vivek Hyb9, 3: APQH9, 4: Vivek QPM 9, 5: White maize
Effect of feeding different source of maize on
performance in Vanaraja birds during 6 weeks of age
QPM Normal
QPM
+
ProA
Normal Normal
VH9 PVQ9I VQ9
Vanaraja
Consumption of 200 g of proA
hybrids per day:
• Pusa-PV-16-3: 52% RDA
• Pusa-APQH8: 64% RDA
in adult Indian men after adjusting
cooking losses & conversion factors
ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
Human trial using QPM + ProA
maize to be undertaken in 2018-19
by National Institute of Nutrition,
Hyderabad:
Grains of ‘Pusa Vivek QPM9
Improved’ have been produced in
isolation

10. ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute
Efforts continue to further improve proA maize
 Improvement of proA hybrids for α-
tocopherol by targeting ZmVTE4
 Experimental hybrids under testing
 Multivitamin rich maize
 Development of low phytate proA
maize
 With high bioavailable –Fe and –Zn
 Multinutrient rich maize
 Targeting CCD1
 Enhanced retention of proA
carotenoids during storage
 Combining high oil with proA
 Increased bioavailability of proA
in the human body

11.  ICAR and IARI
 Drs. HS Gupta and BM Prasanna
 Director, IIMR and Winter Nursery Centre, Hyderabad
 Breeders from CCSHAU, Karnal and VPKAS, Almora
 CIMMYT-HarvestPlus
 Funding agencies: DBT, DST and ICAR-CRPs
 Dr. Firoz Hossain, Programme Leader (Maize), IARI
 Dr. Rajkumar Zunjare and Maize Genetics Unit, IARI
 Students and Research Fellows
and
 CRP Maize and YPARD
 Organisers, 13th AMC
ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute Acknowledgements

12. Thank You
“The wise man should consider that health is
the greatest of human blessings.
Let food be your medicine”
- Hippocrates
ICAR-IndianAgriculturalResearchInstitute