Advanced biotechnological strategies towards the development of crops with enhanced micronutrient content

Abstract

Micronutrients are essential mineral elements required for both plant and human development.An integrated system involving soil, climatic conditions, and types of crop plants determines the level of micronutrient acquisition and utilization. Most of the staple food crops consumed globally predominantly include the cereal grains, tubers and roots, respectively and in many cases, particularly in the resource-poor countries they are grown in nutrient-deficient soils. These situations frequently lead to micronutrient deficiency in crops. Moreover, crop plants with micronutrient deficiency also show high level of susceptibility to various abiotic and biotic stress factors. Apart from this, climate change and soil pollution severely affect the accumulation of micronutrients, such as zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), selenium (Se), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu) in food crops. Therefore, overcoming the issue of micronutrient deficiency in staple crops and to achieve the adequate level of food production with enriched nutrient value is one of the major global challenges at present. Conventional breeding approaches are not adequate to feed the increasing global population with nutrient-rich staple food crops. To address these issues, alongside traditional approaches, genetic modification strategies have been adopted during the past couple of years in order to enhance the transport, production, enrichment and bioavailability of micronutrients in staple crops. Recent advances in agricultural biotechnology and genome editing approaches have shown promising response in the development of micronutrient enriched biofortified crops. This review highlights the current advancement of our knowledge on the possible implications of various biotechnological tools for the enrichment and enhancement of bioavailability of micronutrients in crops.

Unravelling the genetic framework associated with grain quality and yield-related traits in maize (Zea mays L.)

“…, and yield-related traits including grain yield per se , kernel length, kernel width, kernel weight, etc. ( Chen et al, 2008 ; Li et al, 2012 ; Zdunic et al, 2014 ; Venado et al, 2017 ; Fei et al, 2022 ; Xu et al, 2022 ; Banerjee et al, 2023 ).…”

Effects of Three Exogenous Selenium on Rice Morphology, Photosynthesis, Antioxidant Enzyme System, and Identification of Selenium-Related Genes

“…Rice, wheat, and maize are the major source of global food supply and representing about 90% of cereal production worldwide. The human population largely depends on these major cereal crops for the supply of food and nutrition [31]. Therefore, to feed and provide nutrition to the increasing population, plant biologists are continuously working on the improvement of nutritional value, productivity, sustainability, and environmental protection of the cereal crops as well as natural plant species [32].…”

Using the Aqueous Phase Produced from Hydrothermal Carbonization Process of Brown Seaweed to Improve the Growth of Phaseolus vulgaris

“…‘Borlotto’ growth. Seed-priming treatment with all three solutions led to higher photosynthesis rate and WUE, probably as a consequence of the higher stomatal density [ 51 ] and micronutrient content [ 52 ] recorded in AHL-treated samples compared with values recorded in control plants. However, the biomass was allocated differently among the three AHL-treated plants.…”