Maize : potential crop for provitamin A biofortification

Abstract

Cereals are the only source of nutrition for one-third of the world’s population especially in developing and underdeveloped nations of Sub-Saharan Africa and South-east Asia. Among the cereals, only the yellow maize exhibits tremendous natural variation for provitamin A carotenoids to exploit through plant breeding and being a carotenogenic plant, it is considered as one of the model cereal crops, showing promise for provitamin A biofortification. This paper deals with the maize carotenid biosynthetic pathway, genetic variability for kernel carotenoids, native genetic system for kernel carotenoids, marker assisted backcross breeding for enhancing provitamin A, recent advances in provitamin A biofortification and quantification of provitamin A carotenoids.