1 research outputs found
Metabolic Engineering of Wheat Provitamin A by Simultaneously Overexpressing <i>CrtB</i> and Silencing Carotenoid Hydroxylase (<i>TaHYD</i>)
Increasing
the provitamin A content in staple crops via carotenoid
metabolic engineering is one way to address vitamin A deficiency.
In this work a combination of methods was applied to specifically
increase β-carotene content in wheat by metabolic engineering.
Endosperm-specific silencing of the carotenoid hydroxylase gene (<i>TaHYD</i>) increased β-carotene content 10.5-fold to 1.76
μg g<sup>–1</sup> in wheat endosperm. Overexpression
of <i>CrtB</i> introduced an additional flux into wheat,
accompanied by a β-carotene increase of 14.6-fold to 2.45 μg
g<sup>–1</sup>. When the “push strategy” (overexpressing <i>CrtB</i>) and “block strategy” (silencing <i>TaHYD</i>) were combined in wheat metabolic engineering, significant
levels of β-carotene accumulation were obtained, corresponding
to an increase of up to 31-fold to 5.06 μg g<sup>–1</sup>. This is the first example of successful metabolic engineering to
specifically improve β-carotene content in wheat endosperm through
a combination of methods and demonstrates the potential of genetic
engineering for specific nutritional enhancement of wheat