Current Status and Future Perspectives of Biofortification in Wheat

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.