Project Number: 1907-21000-025-06
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 14, 2006
End Date: Sep 13, 2011

Objective:
The objectives of this cooperative research project are to study the genetic elements that control carotenoid accumulation in plants and to develop food crops enriched with carotenoids.

Approach:
The approaches will include: 1) to transform our recently cloned cauliflower Or gene into one of the staple crops and to examine the effects of Or transgene on carotenoid accumulation and plant growth; 2) to amplify the Or ortholog gene by PCR from a panel of maize and/or sorghum that captures the majority of the genetic variation in those species and transform the allelic variants into cell systems to find the best Or alleles for nutritional enhancement; 3) to investigate new strategies to maximally enrich carotenoid in staple crops for nutrition improvement; and 4) to use molecular, genetic, and proteomic tools to identify and characterize novel genetic elements that regulate carotenoid accumulation. Research will be carried out to examine how these novel genetic elements interacting with the cauliflower Or gene in controlling carotenoid metabolic process.