BREEDING CORN WITH ORANGE GRAIN HIGH IN ANTIOXIDANT CAROTENOIDS

Perform conventional breeding procedures using natural variation for carotenoids and former commercial plant variety protected (exPVP) inbreds to produce F1 hybrids with dark orange grain, higher in provitamin A and total carotenoids that are suitable for organic, small farm, and larger scale production.Perform marker assisted introgression and selection of favorable alleles of carotenoid biosynthetic genes, isoprenoid biosynthetic genes, and carotenoid degradation genes associated with levels of carotenoids, in order to create orange corn hybrids with higher levels of provitamin A and total carotenoids in the grain.Evaluate experimental F1 hybrids in organic cropping systems and conventional cropping systems, compare performance, and chose best hybrids for each system.Create orange corn hybrids that contain the cross incompatible gametophytic factor 1 (Ga1-s) allele from popcorn so that foreign pollen, particularly from GMOs, is excluded.