**Abstract**

Maize (*Zea mays* L.) plays a significant role in human nutrition and animal feed. After the discovery of opaque-2 mutants in maize, that produces with enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan. Quality protein maize (QPM) holds superior nutritional value and is essentially exchangeable with normal maize. The increasing use of maize as feed, increasing interest of the consumers in nutritionally enriched products and rising demand for maize seed are the core driving forces behind emerging importance of maize crop in India. Protein malnutrition is a serious global issue demanding huge resources on healthcare. The problem can be addressed to a considerable extent by shifting to quality protein maize diet. The development of QPM hybrids through advanced breeding approach like molecular marker-assisted breeding was adopted. It could solve the issue related to protein deficiency in developing countries.

**Keywords:** maize, opaque-2, QPM, protein deficiency, marker-assisted breeding
