Manipulation of maize from low protein to high using desired breeding methods to improve quality traits

1. Credit seminar
on
High Quality Protein Maize
Seminar In-charge - Dr. P.K. Moitra
Major advisor - Dr. S.K. Bilaiya
Presented by – Kratika Alawe
Enrolment No. – 170116004
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetic
Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidhyalaya, Jabalpur

2. Maize
 Name of Crop: Maize
 Botanical Name: Zea mays L.
 Family: Poaceae
 Chromosome No.: 2n = 20
 Center of Origin: Central America (Mexico)
 Mode of pollination : Cross pollination
 Out crossing percentage: 95%

3. Introduction
 Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important cereal crop in
world agricultural economy for both man and feed for
animals . It is also known as miracle crop , it has very high
yield potential and there is no such crop which has such
immense potentiality , that’s why it is called queen of
cereals.
 Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third major cereal crop in the
world after wheat and rice and is used for both livestock
feed and human consumption

4.  India position 6th in the production of maize
 Maize contributes15% of the world’s protein and19% of the
calories derived from food crops
 The crop is also an important component of livestock feed,
especially in developed nations where 78% of total maize
production is used for livestock feed

5. High quality protein maize
• High quality protein maize (HQPM), it is an improved variety
of maize which is higher in lysine and tryptophan and lower
in leucin and isoleucin in an endosperm than those
contained in normal maize

6. Why there is a need of HQPM ?
• Malnutrition is a persistent problem in Africa, especially in
rural areas where poor people depend on staple foods and
have limited access to a diverse diet
• Several hundred million people rely on maize as their
principal daily food, for weaning babies, and for feeding
livestock. Unfortunately maize (corn) has two significant
flaws; it lacks the full range of amino acid
namely lysine and tryptophan, needed to produce proteins,
and has its niacin (vitamin B3) bound in an indigestible
complex

7. Nutritional superiority of QPM over
normal maize
Content Normal Maize QPM
Lysine 160-180 256-300
Tryptophan 30-40 60-100
Leucine 827 507
Isoleucine 206 193
True protein digestibility 82 92
Biological value 45 80

8. Nutritional benefit

9. Genetic system involves in the
development of HQPM
Recessive
homozygo
-us allele
of the o2
gene
Modifiers
for kernel
hardness
Amino
acid
modifiers

10. Recessive homozygous allele of the o2
gene
• The o2 allele in homozygous condition reduces production of
alpha- zeins and triggers increase in the level of lysine and
tryptophan.
• Involved in the synthesis of the enzyme that is associated
with free lysine degradation. Reduction in this enzyme leads
to a corresponding increase in free lysine in the endosperm

11. Modifiers for kernel hardness
• Increased level of the gamma-zein is likely to contribute to
the recovery of hard endosperm o2 modified (QPM) grains
have double the amount of gamma-zein in the endosperm
compared to the o2 mutants.
• Two genes responsible for the grain hardness, mapped to
the long arm of chromosome 7 and one of them is located
near the gamma- zein gene ‘gzr 1’.
• Increased amount of granule-bound starch synthase I
reflected in the form of a change in starch structure, which
was manifested as shorter amylopectin branches and
increased swelling of starch granules. CM105 wild-type
CM105 opaque 2

14. Amino acid modifiers
• It enhances the relative level of lysine and tryptophan
content in grain endosperm.
• Three genes associated with lysine level have been mapped
to locations on chromosome 2, 4 and 7.
• Apart from this, several major o2 modifier-QTLs located on
chromosomes 1, 7 and 9 have been recently mapped

15. QPM development dates back to the 1920s when a natural
spontaneous mutation of maize with soft and opaque grains
was discovered in a maize field in Connecticut, USA. The
salient events of this discovery (Prasanna et al., 2001; Vasal,
2000) are summarized as follows:
History of HQPM development

16.  Kernels of the mutant maize were delivered to the
Connecticut Experiment Station and the mutant was
eventually named opaque2 (o2) but received little further
attention.
 In 1961, researchers at Purdue University, USA, discovered
that maize homozygous for the opaque2 (o2o2) recessive
mutant allele had substantially higher levels of lysine and
tryptophan in the endosperm, compared to CM with the
dominant O2 allele (O2O2 or O2o2).

17.  Breeding programs worldwide started converting
conventional maize to o2 versions through a direct backcross
approach. However, serious negative secondary (pleiotropic)
effects of the mutation were soon discovered which severely
limited the practical use of the mutation in the field.

18. O2 utilisation in breeding
programme
Pleiotropic effect of this gene
Resulted
Soft
endosper
m
Damaged
kernel
Susceptibi
lity to
pest and
fungus
Reduced
yield 25%
Inferior
to food
processin
g

19. Further CYMMIT developed
two methods for HQMP
development
By
Conventio
-nal
method
By
Molecular
method

20. Conventional breeding
• During the 1980s, CIMMYT took initiatives to convert a
number of non-QPM genotypes to QPM genotypes, they
followed a ‘modified backcrossing-cum-recurrent selection.’
• During the conversion process, they also emphasized grain
yield, kernel modification, reduced ear rot incidence and
other agronomic traits.
• In a short span of 5–6 years, CIMMYT could convert many
normal germplasm into QPM, which were as good as their
non-QPM counterparts for grain yield and other agronomic
traits.

22. • Two scientists of CIMMYT, Mexico,
Dr. S. K. Vasal and Dr. Evangelina
Villegas, for a period of three
decades led to development of
Quality Protein Maize (QPM) with
hard kernel, good taste and other
consumer favouring characteristics.
• QPM research and development
spread from Mexico to Central and
South America, Africa, Europe and
Asia. Awarded 2000 “World food
prize” for path breaking research.

23. • 1970 -India is one of the first few countries to focus on o2
maize and released three o2 composites, namely Shakti,
Rattan and Protina.
• 1997- modified superior o2 composite ‘Shakti 1’.
• Later, India released eight QPM hybrids, seven of which were
developed from the QPM inbreds of CIMMYT as parental
lines and are of full season maturity.(HQPM1, HQPM5
,HQPM 7, Vivek QPM 9).
• Breakthrough achievement in development of “Miracle
Maize”

24. Development of QPM hybrid through
marker assisted selection
• In order to shorten the period required for development of
QPM hybrids through the conventional method of
backcrossing, marker assisted selection (MAS) can be used.
• Few molecular markers were already known within the o2
gene and these makers were capable of detecting the o2
gene even in heterozygous state.

25. o2o2 quantitative
determination Using
SSR markers phi57,
phi112, umc 1066
VQL 2
(94.44%)
Vivek
QPM 9
CML 180
(Donor
inbred line)
CML 212
(Recipient
o2 gene)
CML 170
(Donor
inbred
line)
CML 145
(Recipient
o2 gene)
VQL 1
(92.0%)
Biochemical analysis

26. • To convert normal maize hybrid into QPM hybrid, a
promising hybrid, viz. Vivek Maize Hybrid 9 (developed by
Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan,
Almora) was selected for converting into QPM.
• The hybrid was released for commercial cultivation in
Himalayan states, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka
and Maharashtra by the Central Seed Sub-committee on
Crop Standard and Notification in the year 2000.

28. QPM cultivars released for
commercial cultivation in India

29. Name Pedigree Year of
release
Maturity
group
Center’s
name
Shakti Composite 1970 Full season AICRP
Rattan Composite 1970 Full season AICRP
Protina Composite 1970 Full season AICRP
Shakti -1 Composite 1997 Full season DMR
Shaktiman -1 (CML 142 x CML 150) x CML 186 2001 Full season Dholi
Shaktiman - 2 CML 176 x CML 186 2004 Full season Dholi
HQPM -1 HKI 193-1 x HKI 163 2005 Full season Uchani
Shaktiman - 3 CML 161 x CML 163 2006 Full season Dholi
Shaktiman - 4 CML 161 x CML 169 2006 Full season Dholi
HQPM -3 HKI 163 x HKI 161 2007 Full season Uchani
HQPM -7 HKI 193-1 x HKI 161 2008 Full season Uchani
Vivek QPM 9 VQL 1 x VQL 2 2008 Extra early Almora
HQPM -4 HKI-193-2 X HKI-161 2010 Late Uchani
Pratap QPM
Hybrid-1 (EHQ-
16)
DMRQPM-106 (CLQ RCYQ-40) X
HKI-193-1
2013 Medium Udaipur

30. Protein content in grain
(%) and Tryptophan
content in protein (%)

31. Name Protein content in grain
(%)
Tryptophan content in
protein (%)
Shaktiman – 1 9.6 1.0
Shaktiman -2 9.3 1.0
HQPM -1 9.3 0.9
Shaktiman -3 9.6 0.7
Shaktiman -4 9.9 0.9
HQPM -5 9.8 0.7
HQPM-7 9.4 0.7
Vivek QPM -9 8.4 0.8

32. Conclusion
• For a country like India, with diverse agro climatic and soil
situations, need to develop a number of QPM hybrids of
different maturity groups, viz. early, medium and late (full
season).
• However, the major constraints in adoption of the QPM
hybrids in these areas are the non-availability of hybrid seeds
and lack of incentives like premium price for the QPM over
normal maize grains.
• There is also a need to create awareness among the
consumers and industry for its use in food and feed.
• We are developing a linkage between the seed producers,
farmers and the industry to bring about the much needed
synergy in development and utilization of QPM that will help
in reducing protein malnutrition.

33. Thank you