WRINKLED1 (WRI1), a key regulator of seed oil biosynthesis in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), was duplicated during the genome amplification of the cereal ancestor genome 90 million years ago. Both maize (Zea mays) coorthologs ZmWri1a and ZmWri1b show a strong transcriptional induction during the early filling stage of the embryo and complement the reduced fatty acid content of Arabidopsis ...

¹⁴C labeling experiments performed with kernel cultures showed that developing maize endosperm is more efficient than other non-photosynthetic tissues such as sunflower and maize embryos at converting maternally supplied substrates into biomass. To characterize the metabolic fluxes in endosperm, maize kernels were labeled to isotopic steady state using ¹³C-labeled glucose. The resultant labelin...

Two experiments were conducted to determine the amino acid (AA) digestibility and nitrogen (N) utilization of three maize hybrids, i.e. high oil (HO), waxy (WX), and high lysine (HL) as compared to isogenic high oil (IHO), isogenic waxy (IWX), and a yellow dent (YD1) maize variety near-isogenic to HL. One yellow dent maize of unrelated genetics (YD2) was included as an additional control and to...

Plant-based oral vaccines are a promising emergent technology that could help alleviate disease burden worldwide by providing a low-cost, heat-stable, oral alternative to parenterally administered commercial vaccines. Here, we describe high-level accumulation of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) at a mean concentration of 0.51%TSP in maize T1 seeds using an improved version of the globuli...

A commercial blend of essential oil (EO) compounds was added to a grass, maize silage, and concentrate diet fed to dairy cattle in order to determine their influence on protein metabolism by ruminal microorganisms. EO inhibited (P < 0.05) the rate of deamination of amino acids. Pure-culture studies indicated that the species most sensitive to EO were ammonia-hyperproducing bacteria and anaerobi...

The performance of broilers fed diets containing maize grain from event DP-Ø9814Ø-6 (98140; gat4621 and zm-hra genes) and processed fractions (meal, hulls, and oil) from soybeans containing event DP-356Ø43-5 (356043; gat4601 and gm-hra genes) was evaluated in a 42-d feeding study. Diets were produced with nontransgenic maize grain and soybean fractions from controls with comparable genetic back...

BACKGROUND Biofortification is a strategy to relieve vitamin A (VA) deficiency. Biofortified maize contains enhanced provitamin A concentrations and has been bioefficacious in animal and small human studies. OBJECTIVE The study sought to determine changes in total body reserves (TBRs) of vitamin A with consumption of biofortified maize. DESIGN A randomized, placebo-controlled biofortified m...

In this paper the trade restrictiveness of agricultural policies in Iran was measured by the TRIindex for the nine major agricultural products including wheat, rice, barely, maize, soybean,meat (beef meat), soybean oil, sugar and banana over the period 1981 to 2007. The main resultsindicate that there is no trend in above index and high volatility especially in 2006 and 2007years due to conside...

The physiological processes that control relative starch, protein, and oil concentration of maize (Zea mays L.) kernels are not well defined. In this study, associations between metabolic characteristics of developing kernels and specific storage product accumulation in mature kernels were identified. In a field experiment, kernels of maize genotypes with widely divergent chemical composition w...

BACKGROUND Micronutrient deficiencies continue to constitute a major burden of disease, particularly in Africa and South Asia. Programs to address micronutrient deficiencies have been increasing in number, type, and scale in recent years, creating an ever-growing need to understand their combined coverage levels, costs, and impacts so as to more effectively combat deficiencies, avoid putting in...