By G.S. Mudur
A variety of corn with extra protein developed by scientists in
Uttarakhand may be the first of a series of designer crops that India plans
to develop without genetic modification involving alien genes.
Scientists at the Vivekananda Paravtiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan in
Almora last week announced that a variety of corn they had produced through
a combination of modern biology and traditional breeding had a protein
quality that approached that of milk.

Standard corn, maize, is the third-largest cereal crop grown in India,
but is deficient in lysine and tryptophan, two key amino acids that are the
building blocks of proteins. Now, the Vivekananda scientists have created a
hybrid with 30 per cent higher lysine and 40 per cent higher tryptophan than
in ordinary maize.

This was achieved through marker-assisted breeding, a technique in
which scientists painstakingly screen segments of the genome in genetically
distinct varieties of corn to find the right combination of two corn
varieties to cross.

?This technique does not involve insertion of a gene from any other
organism into the crops. So, it won?t draw any concerns about environment or
health,? said Pawan Agrawal, a scientist at the biotechnology division of
the institute.

The high-protein corn was created by repeated breeding experiments
aimed at inserting traits of a variety called QPM, discovered in the 1960s
by an international maize research institute in Mexico, into an indigenous
variety called Vivek 9.

The increase in the levels of these amino acids makes the protein in
this corn approach the quality of milk protein, Agrawal said. The yield of
this variety is about 10 per cent higher than that of its indigenous parent.

The marker-assisted breeding technique also speeded up the creation of
a new variety. Traditional breeding would have taken about 10 years, while
the genetic screening methodology made the feat possible in about three
years, Agrawal said.

?This is significant. Although we have already commercialised a few
varieties of high-protein corn, this work combines QPM with an attractive
variety,? said Samar Bahadur Singh at the Directorate of Maize Research in
Delhi.

The Centre?s department of biotechnology will launch a programme to
create more such designer crops with beneficial agricultural traits, without
genetic engineering, said biotechnology secretary M.K. Bhan. ?We?ll use the
transgenic route when there is no other route, otherwise we?ll proceed with
marker-assisted breeding wherever possible.?

A panel of experts has been asked to draw up a list of crops of
interest, Bhan said. Among the candidate crops are rice, wheat, chickpea,
oil seeds, uradbean and mungbean, said R.R. Sinha, adviser in the
biotechnology department.

In genetic modification involving alien genes, crops are given new
properties through the insertion of genes from other species - either
bacteria or from other plants.


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