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Science 18 January 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5861, pp. 330 - 333
DOI: 10.1126/science.1150255
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Reports

Natural Genetic Variation in Lycopene Epsilon Cyclase Tapped for Maize Biofortification

Carlos E. Harjes,1* Torbert R. Rocheford,2{dagger} Ling Bai,3 Thomas P. Brutnell,3 Catherine Bermudez Kandianis,2 Stephen G. Sowinski,4 Ann E. Stapleton,5 Ratnakar Vallabhaneni,6,7 Mark Williams,4 Eleanore T. Wurtzel,6,7 Jianbing Yan,8 Edward S. Buckler1,9,10{dagger}

Dietary vitamin A deficiency causes eye disease in 40 million children each year and places 140 to 250 million at risk for health disorders. Many children in sub-Saharan Africa subsist on maize-based diets. Maize displays considerable natural variation for carotenoid composition, including vitamin A precursors {alpha}-carotene, β-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin. Through association analysis, linkage mapping, expression analysis, and mutagenesis, we show that variation at the lycopene epsilon cyclase (lcyE) locus alters flux down {alpha}-carotene versus β-carotene branches of the carotenoid pathway. Four natural lcyE polymorphisms explained 58% of the variation in these two branches and a threefold difference in provitamin A compounds. Selection of favorable lcyE alleles with inexpensive molecular markers will now enable developing-country breeders to more effectively produce maize grain with higher provitamin A levels.

1 Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
2 Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
3 Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
4 DuPont Crop Genetics Research, Wilmington, DE 19880, USA.
5 Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA.
6 Department of Biological Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY), Bronx, NY 10468, USA.
7 The Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY 10016, USA.
8 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Apartado Postal 6-64, 06600 Mexico, DF, Mexico.
9 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research Unit, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
10 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.

* Present address: Monsanto Company, Leesburg, GA 30903, USA.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: esb33{at}cornell.edu (E.S.B); trochefo{at}uiuc.edu (T.R.R.)

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)