Scientific Publication

Nutritionally Enhanced Staple Food Crops

Crop biofortification is a sustainable and cost-effective strategy to addressmalnutrition in developing countries. This review synthesizes the progresstoward developing seed micronutrient-dense cereals and legumes cultivars byexploiting natural genetic variation using conventional breeding and/or transgenictechnology, and discusses the associated issues to strengthen crop biofortificationresearch and development. Some major QTL for seed iron and zinc,seed phosphorus, and seed phytate in common bean, rice,J;md wheat have beenmapped. An iron reductase QTL associated with seed-iron ~QTL is found in common bean where the genes coding for candidate enzymes involved in phyticacid synthesis have also been mapped. Candidate genes for Ipa co segregate withmutant phenotypes identified in rice and soybean. The Gpe-B1 locus in wildemmer wheat accelerates senescence and increases nutrient remobilizationfrom leaves to developing seeds, and another gene named TtNAM-B1 affectingthese traits has been cloned. Seed iron-dense common bean and rice in LatinAmerica; seed iron-dense common bean in eastern and southern Africa;