Volume 12, Issue 2, July 2015, Pages 342–354
Bachir Daoura Goudia1 and C. Tom Hash2
1 Dryland Cereals Research Program, ICRISAT Sahelian Center, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), BP 12404, Niamey, Niger
2 Dryland Cereals Research Program, ICRISAT Sahelian Center, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), BP 12404, Niamey, Niger
Original language: English
Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Micronutrients are known to play an important role in the metabolism and physiological activities of the human body. Unfortunately, over three billion people in the world are malnourished. The development of crops with enhanced mineral concentration is one of the most sustainable and cost effective approaches for alleviating micronutrient malnutrition. This review focuses on the progress made in the genetic enhancement of element mineral concentration in crops through plant breeding strategies. Biofortification is considered as a suitable strategy of increasing the bioavailable concentrations of an element in edible portions of crop plants through traditional breeding practices or modern biotechnology to overcome the problem of micronutrient deficiencies. Therefore, the combination of conventional breeding with modern genetic engineering approaches and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis is important for developing crop cultivars with enhanced micronutrient concentrations to improve human health.
Author Keywords: Bioavailability, biofortification, iron, micronutrient deficiency, zinc.
Bachir Daoura Goudia1 and C. Tom Hash2
1 Dryland Cereals Research Program, ICRISAT Sahelian Center, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), BP 12404, Niamey, Niger
2 Dryland Cereals Research Program, ICRISAT Sahelian Center, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), BP 12404, Niamey, Niger
Original language: English
Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Micronutrients are known to play an important role in the metabolism and physiological activities of the human body. Unfortunately, over three billion people in the world are malnourished. The development of crops with enhanced mineral concentration is one of the most sustainable and cost effective approaches for alleviating micronutrient malnutrition. This review focuses on the progress made in the genetic enhancement of element mineral concentration in crops through plant breeding strategies. Biofortification is considered as a suitable strategy of increasing the bioavailable concentrations of an element in edible portions of crop plants through traditional breeding practices or modern biotechnology to overcome the problem of micronutrient deficiencies. Therefore, the combination of conventional breeding with modern genetic engineering approaches and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis is important for developing crop cultivars with enhanced micronutrient concentrations to improve human health.
Author Keywords: Bioavailability, biofortification, iron, micronutrient deficiency, zinc.
How to Cite this Article
Bachir Daoura Goudia and C. Tom Hash, “Breeding for high grain Fe and Zn levels in cereals,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 342–354, July 2015.
