Abstract
Biofortification is an upcoming, promising, cost-effective, and sustainable technique of delivering micronutrients to a population that has limited access to diverse diets and other micronutrient interventions. Unfortunately, major food crops are poor sources of micronutrients required for normal human growth. The manuscript deals in all aspects of crop biofortification which includes—breeding, agronomy, and genetic modification. It tries to summarize all the biofortification research that has been conducted on different crops. Success stories of biofortification include lysine and tryptophan rich quality protein maize (World food prize 2000), Vitamin A rich orange sweet potato (World food prize 2016); generated by crop breeding, oleic acid, and stearidonic acid soybean enrichment; through genetic transformation and selenium, iodine, and zinc supplementation. The biofortified food crops, especially cereals, legumes, vegetables, and fruits, are providing sufficient levels of micronutrients to targeted populations. Although a greater emphasis is being laid on transgenic research, the success rate and acceptability of breeding is much higher. Besides the challenges biofortified crops hold a bright future to address the malnutrition challenge.
Highlights
“Biofortification” or “biological fortification” refers to nutritionally enhanced food crops with increased bioavailability to the human population that are developed and grown using modern biotechnology techniques, conventional plant breeding, and agronomic practices
Vitamins and minerals have been provided to the masses through nutrient supplementation programs, but it falls short of the goals set by the international health organizations as the supplementation programs rely on external funding that is not guaranteed to be available from year to year
The banana, a fourth most important food crop of the developing countries, has been predominantly targeted for beta-carotene. This has been achieved by developing transgenic banana (Super Banana) by expressing phytoene synthase (PSY) gene (PSY2a) of Asupina banana, which is naturally high in beta-carotene [185]
Summary
“Biofortification” or “biological fortification” refers to nutritionally enhanced food crops with increased bioavailability to the human population that are developed and grown using modern biotechnology techniques, conventional plant breeding, and agronomic practices. The soybean has been targeted to increase provitamin A (beta-carotene), a monounsaturated ω-9 fatty acid (oleic acid) and seed protein contents by expressing bacterial PSY gene [112]. Kim et al [114] has demonstrated the production of a high provitamin A (beta-carotene) soybean through overexpression of PSY and carotene desaturase Another important nutrient vitamin E activity in barley has been enhanced with increased content of δ-tocopherol and decreased γ-tocopherol by coexpressing 2-methyl-6-phytyl benzoquinol methyltransferase genes [At-VTE3; At-VTE4 [115]]. The banana, a fourth most important food crop of the developing countries, has been predominantly targeted for beta-carotene This has been achieved by developing transgenic banana (Super Banana) by expressing PSY gene (PSY2a) of Asupina banana, which is naturally high in beta-carotene [185].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
