Genomics and Applied Biology 2019, Vol.10, No.2, 10-19
10
Research Article
Open Access
Quality Protein Maize (QPM): A Way Forward for Food and Nutritional
Security
Tripathy Swapan K.
Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, India
Corresponding author email:
Genomics and Applied Biology, 2019, Vol.10, No.1 doi:
Received: 15 Jul., 2018
Accepted: 17 Aug., 2018
Published: 03 Feb., 2019
Copyright © 2019
Tripathy, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Tripathy S.K., 2019, Quality protein maize (QPM): a way forward for food and nutritional security, Genomics and Applied Biology, 10(2): 10-19 (doi:
)
Abstract
Maize being the third important cereal food crop next to rice and wheat; it seems to be a good candidate for
biofortification. Quality of food and feed depend on protein content and amino acid balance. α-zeins are the major prolamin fraction
of seed protein in maize. These are rich in glutamine, leucine and proline, but deficient in essential amino acids like lysine and
tryptophan causing malnutrition. However, discovery of
opaque 2
mutation and modifier complexes made it possible to develop
modified QPM genotypes and hybrids. In this pursuit, the authors presented a detailed review of the status of seed protein, amino
acid composition, genetic mechanism of
opaque 2
mutation, mapping of Opaque 2 gene and modifier complexes, nature of
inheritance of
opaque 2
allele and breeding strategies for nutritional amelioration in maize.
Keywords
Quality protein maize (QPM);
opaque-2
; Nutritional value; Introgression lines; QPM hybrids
Background
Maize (
Zea mays
L.) is the queen of cereal crops with highest grain yield potential and high fodder production
capacity owing to its C4 type carbon fixation. It accounts 10% to the national food stock, contributes significantly
to the agriculture GDP and paves the way for huge employment. It is grown in wide range of agro-ecological
environments. India ranked fifth next to USA, China, Brazil and Argentina in terms of maize production.
Consumption wise it is used as poultry feed 52%, human food 24%, animal feed 11% and more than 22% is
diverted towards industrial processing. Production of maize was about 12 million tonnes in early 2000s and it was
increased to around 22 million tonnes in 2014. However, India is far behind in productivity (2.5 metric tonnes/ha)
which is less than half of the world average (5.5 metric tonnes/ha) due to its cultivation mainly in rain-fed
conditions with inadequate irrigation, quality seed and other inputs. It has been estimated to produce 55 million
tonnes maize by the year 2030 to meet ever increasing demand for human consumption. Cultivation of maize
hybrids with major focus on Rabi maize production and innovative technologies in maize value chain can address
this target.
Nutritional security is the backbone of human health. In spite of the importance of maize as a third important
cereal crop, it is nutritionally poor due to improper seed protein composition and amino acid balance. However,
quality protein maize (QPM) can be an alternative. In this pursuit, I focus on the prospects of QPM for amino acid
amelioration besides enhancing the productivity of maize through development of heterotic hybrids using elite
QPM introgression lines.
1 Maize-An Important Food and Feed
Maize grains is an important human food (fried and boiled) and animal feed (ground dried as corn meal) in many
countries (Gupta et al., 2009). It is the principal staple food for Americans. As an alternative to wheat flour, it can
be used for bread making and other baked products. It serves as poultry feed (51%), human food (23%), animal
feed (12%), industrial starch products (12%), beverages and seed (1% each). Corn flour is a major food
component in home cooking and industrialized food products. Maize is rich in vitamin-B, moderate in dietary
fiber and the essential minerals (magnesium and phosphorus); whereas other nutrients are in low amounts. It
