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Genetic engineering to improve essential and conditionally essential amino acids in maize: transporter engineering as a reference

Transgenic Research volume 30, pages 207–220 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Ruminants and humans are unable to synthesize essential amino acids (EAAs) and conditionally essential amino acids (CEAAs) under normal conditions and need to acquire them from plant sources. Maize plays, as a major crop, a central role in global food security. However, maize is deficient in several EAAs and CEAAs. Genetic engineering has been successfully used to enrich the EAA content of maize to some extent, including the content of Lys, Trp, and Met. However, research on other EAAs is lacking. Genetic engineering provides several viable approaches for increasing the EAA content in maize, including transformation of a single gene, transformation of multiple genes in a single cassette, overexpression of putative amino acid transporters, engineering the amino acid biosynthesis pathway including silencing of feedback inhibition enzymes, and overexpression of major enzymes in this pathway. These challenging processes require a deep understanding of the biosynthetic and metabolic pathways of individual amino acids, and the interaction of individual amino acids with other metabolic pathways.

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Fig. 1

source served as a control of the N source. OE1, OE2 and OE3 represent three independent gene overexpression lines. For more background, see Hasan (2015) and Pan et al. (2015). Reproduced from Fig. 10 (Pan et al. 2015) under a Creative Commons Attribution License (version 3.0)

Fig. 2

source served as a control of the N source. OE1, OE2 and OE3 represent three independent gene overexpression lines. For more background, see Hasan (2015) and Pan et al. (2015). Reproduced from Fig. 10 (Pan et al. 2015) under a Creative Commons Attribution License (version 3.0)

Abbreviations

AA:

Amino acid

CEAA:

Conditionally essential amino acid

EAA:

Essential amino acid

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  1. Department of Nutrition and Food Technology, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Jashore, 7408, Bangladesh

    Md. Mahmudul Hasan

  2. The Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, Center for Resources, Environment and Food Security, Department of Plant Nutrition, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Md. Mahmudul Hasan

  3. Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland

    Rima Rima

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Hasan, M.M., Rima, R. Genetic engineering to improve essential and conditionally essential amino acids in maize: transporter engineering as a reference. Transgenic Res 30, 207–220 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-021-00235-0

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Keywords

  • Maize
  • Amino acid transporters
  • Overexpression