Current Status and Future Perspectives of Biofortification in Wheat

Abstract

Wheat is the main cereal crop worldwide and about 2 billion people suffer from Zn and Fe deficiency because of their dependence just on cereal crops. Three Billion people are malnourished suffering from mild to severe physical and mental disabilities. Vast genetic diversity of Wheat exists in nature that differs in their mineral compositions. Main deficient micronutrients are Provitamin-A, Zn & Fe which deficiencies cause serious physical and mental abnormalities. Different methods of enhancing mineral contents of plants products have been used, out of which biofortification has proved more promising and economical. Bacterial phytoene synthase gene (crtb) and carotene desaturase gene (crti) has been transferred in wheat that has increased carotenoid content but darker colour has less public acceptance.GPC-B1 gene is found to be associated with increase micronutrients but it lowers the overall yield of the plant. Several new methodologies such as oligo-directed mutagenesis, reverse breeding, RNA directed DNA methylation and genome editing have been used for increasing micronutrient composition and their bioavailability. But the combination of Plant Breeding methods with Molecular Techniques will be more useful for advancement in this field.

Biofortification of Major Cereal Crops: A Review

“…Wheat is one of the most used staple crops in the world and about 2 billion suffer from Iron and Zinc deficiency by their dependence just on cereal crops (Umar et al, 2019). Phosphate, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron and zinc appear to be distributed similarly in wheat grain sections, with the highest quantities in the aleurone and embryo (particularly the scutellum) and a low concentration in the starchy endosperm.…”

“…Bacterial phytoene synthase gene (crtb) and carotene desaturase gene (crti) have been transferred into the common wheat cultivar Bobwhite which slightly increased the carotenoid content in the grains of transgenic wheat. (Umar et al, 2019). Polyploidy level effect is seen when wild tetraploid wheat Triticum turgidum spp.…”

“…was used to introduce the high grain protein content (Gpc-B1) locus Dicoccoides into different recombinant chromosome substitution lines resulting in 10-34 percent higher zinc, iron, manganese and protein concentrations in the grain compared to lines carrying the allele from cultivated wheat. (Umar et al, 2019).…”

Improving Nutrition through Biofortification - A Systematic Review

“…Bioforti cation seeks to increase the quantities and bioavailability of nutrients in food crops during their growth (Sushil Kumar et al, 2019;Malik & Maqbool, 2020). It focuses on producing crops with characteristics of high levels of micronutrients in addition to agronomic characteristics such as high yield and disease resistance (Kiran et al, 2022;Umar et al, 2019). Bioforti cation differs from food forti cation in that the former involves the addition of nutrients to food crops prior to harvesting whilst the latter adds nutrients to foods during post-harvest processing (J. L. Finkelstein forti cation usually bene t the populace of developed and industrialized countries with little to no impact in most developing countries.…”

“…Bioforti cation of PBFs presents a way to reach populations where supplementation and conventional forti cation activities may be challenging(Meena et al, 2018) and may serve as an essential step in preventing nutrient de ciencies, especially among consumers of exclusive PBFs.Bioforti cation of PBFs involves increasing the levels of nutrients and their bioavailability. This is dependent on enhancing the bioavailability of the nutrients, uptake and transportation of the nutrients through the plant tissues, and their accumulation in non-toxic quantities in edible parts of the plants(Carvalho & Vasconcelos, 2013;Umar et al, 2019). Bioforti cation of PBFs addresses two main challenges; the inability of the plants to synthesize certain nutrients and the uneven distribution of nutrients in different parts of the plant(Carvalho & Vasconcelos, 2013;Umar et al, 2019).…”