We have previously demonstrated that poor digestibility in sorghum can be addressed by using RNA interference (RNAi) to suppress kafirin synthesis. The approach resulted in a twofold improvement in overall protein digestibility levels. In the present study, the effect of this targeted kafirin suppression on other grain quality parameters was investigated. Several significant changes in the proximate composition, amino acid profile and the bulk mineral content were detected. Importantly, the most limiting amino acid, lysine, was significantly increased in the transgenic grains by up to 39%; whilst mineral elementsin the bulk, such as sulphur (S) and zinc (Zn) were reduced by up to 15.8% and 21% respectively. Elemental mapping of the grain tissue, using micro-PIXE, demonstrated a significant decrease in Zn (>75%), which was localised to the outer endosperm region, whilst TEM revealed important changes to the protein body morphology of the transgenic grains
Reference:
Ndimba, R, Grootboom, AW, Mehlo, L, Mkhonza, NL, Kossmann, J, Barnabas, AD, Mtshali, C, and Pineda-Vargasa, C. Detecting changes in the nutritional value and elemental composition of transgenic sorghum grain. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, vol 363, pp 183–187
Ndimba, R., Grootboom, A., Mehlo, L., Mkhonza, N., Kossmann, J., Barnabas, A., ... Pineda-Vargasa, C. (2015). Detecting changes in the nutritional value and elemental composition of transgenic sorghum grain. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/8416
Ndimba, R, AW Grootboom, L Mehlo, NL Mkhonza, J Kossmann, AD Barnabas, C Mtshali, and C Pineda-Vargasa "Detecting changes in the nutritional value and elemental composition of transgenic sorghum grain." (2015) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/8416
Ndimba R, Grootboom A, Mehlo L, Mkhonza N, Kossmann J, Barnabas A, et al. Detecting changes in the nutritional value and elemental composition of transgenic sorghum grain. 2015; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/8416.
Copyright: Elsevier 2015. Due to copyright restrictions, the attached PDF file only contains the abstract of the full text item. For access to the full text item, please consult the publisher's website. The definitive version of the work is published in the Journal of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms.
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