Project Number: 1907-21000-033-13
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 14, 2011
End Date: Sep 13, 2014

Objective:
The objectives of this cooperative research project are 1) to investigate the genetic elements that control carotenoid and selenium metabolisms in plants; and 2) to develop food crops with enhanced nutritional quality.

Approach:
The approaches will include: 1) to use molecular, biochemical, and genetic tools to isolate and characterize novel genes and to examine metabolites for nutritional improvement; 2) to employ genomic and proteomic approaches to investigate global expression changes associated with altered nutritional characteristics and identify novel genes/proteins involved in the biosynthesis and accumulation of carotenoids and selenium compounds in plants; and 3) to use plant biotechnology and breeding approaches to alter the content and/or composition of these compounds in crops.