Corn with more vitamin A; Bio-based economy opportunities

Producing corn with more vitamin A

Purdue Univ. researchers have identified a set of genes that can be used to naturally boost the provitamin A content of corn kernels, a finding that could help combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries and macular degeneration in the elderly.

Professor of agronomy Torbert Rocheford and fellow researchers found gene variations that can be selected to change nutritionally poor white corn into bio-fortified orange corn with high levels of provitamin A caro…