Overview of quality protein maize and molecular breeding approaches for its development

摘要

Cereals are a major source of dietary proteins and fibers. Maize is emerging as a third leading cereal after wheat and rice. It fulfills about 20-30% calorie requirements of human diet as a staple food in almost 21 countries. However most of the currently grown maize germplasm is deficient in essential amino acids i.e. lysine and tryptophan. It poses serious health hazards to people taking maize as a staple food and giving birth to serious issues i.e. reduced growth rate and kwashiorkor. Hence bio-fortification of maize is mandatory for maintenance of nutritional balance. Current review summarized the methods for improving nutritional profile of maize. Different methods i.e. dietary diversification, supplementation, fortification, fermentation and bio-fortification can be opted to overcome nutritional deficiency of lysine and tryptophan in maize. The last method is inexpensive and can be easily opted by majority of the maize growing nations. Opaque-2 gene mediated quality protein maize, its possible way of utilization in different breeding programs and its role in overcoming nutritional deficiency of maize crop was mainly focused in this review.