I-Corps: Translation potential of biofortified maize and sorghum lines engineered for optimized agronomic performance

This I-Corps project is based on the development of naturally enhanced, high-yielding grains for the food and beverage industry. Currently, manufacturers must choose between standard commodity crops that are cheap and abundant but lack unique flavors, or specialty heirloom crops that offer premium taste but suffer from poor yields and unreliable harvests. This technology introduces robust, commercial-scale grain cultivars that naturally produce highly sought-after phytochemicals without sacrificing harvest volumes. This may provide the food, beverage, and functional ingredient markets with a reliable source of premium raw materials, allowing them to create high-value products while keeping production lines running efficiently. This may also increase the agricultural economy by giving farmers a highly profitable specialty crop to grow. In addition, these advanced plants naturally resist environmental stress, disease, and insect pests and may increase farmers’ profit margins by requiring significantly fewer chemical inputs. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of maize and sorghum breeding lines that combine high agronomic yield with targeted phytochemical profiles. The breeding lines were achieved via advanced plant breeding to isolate specific metabolic pathways. They also have stabilized complex phenolic and anthocyanin expression within a hardy, commercial plant structure. Research on these new hybrid and inbred cultivars shows they consistently express elevated antioxidants while maintaining natural abiotic stress tolerance. Farmers may benefit from optimized field yields, while manufacturing end users gain access to complex volatile flavor profiles previously unattainable in standard commodity grains. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.