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Anthocyanins in corn: a wealth of genes for human health

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Abstract

Different epidemiological and preclinical studies have demonstrated that regular consumption of anthocyanin-rich foods is associated to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and obesity. However, assigning a health property to anthocyanins or other classes of flavonoids may be limited by the influence of other metabolites of plant-based food consumed in the diet, acting as possible confounding factors. The development of model foods essentially isogenic and nutritionally identical except that in the type and quantity of plant bioactives to be studied represents an important tool in nutritional studies. The extensive knowledge of the regulation of flavonoid pathway in maize can be exploited to obtain ‘near-isogenic’ model foods, which differ only in the content of specific classes of flavonoids. Being obtainable by breeding strategies, maize model foods can provide functional foods that can be used for both animal feeding studies and human intervention trials for assessing the role of flavonoids or other bioactives in preventing chronic diseases. This review will be focused on recent advances regarding the anthocyanin biosynthesis in maize, the role of anthocyanins from corn in preventing chronic diseases and finally on the breeding activities to produce maize functional foods with increased anthocyanin content.

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Abbreviations

r1 :

red color1

b1 :

booster1

c1 :

colored aleurone1 or colorless1

pl1 :

purple plant1

p1 :

pericarp color1

pr1 :

purple aleurone1

bHLH:

Basic helix-loop-helix

CHS:

Chalcone synthase

CHI:

Chalcone isomerase

F3H:

Flavanone 3-hydroxylase

F3′H:

Flavanone 3′-hydroxylase

DFR:

Dihydroflavonol reductase

FLS:

Flavonol synthase

ANS:

Anthocyanidin synthase

DHK:

Dihydrokaempferol

DHQ:

Dihydroquercetin

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the EU FP7 ATHENA collaborative project (Grant Agreement 245121) to CT, by Regione Lombardia Fondo per la promozione di Accordi Istituzionali (project BIOGESTECA 15083/RCC) to CT and RP, and by Fondazione Umberto Veronesi Grant 2012 to KP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 26, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Katia Petroni & Chiara Tonelli

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali-Produzione, Territorio, Agroenergia, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Roberto Pilu

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  1. Katia Petroni
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  2. Roberto Pilu
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  3. Chiara Tonelli
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Correspondence to Katia Petroni.

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Special topic: Anthocyanins. Guest editor: Stefan Martens.

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Petroni, K., Pilu, R. & Tonelli, C. Anthocyanins in corn: a wealth of genes for human health. Planta 240, 901–911 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-014-2131-1

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