Nutrient biofortification in wheat: opportunities and challenges

Green revolution has resulted substantial increase in the agricultural production. However, increase in the crop productivity during the post-green revolution period has been suggested as the reason for the gradual deterioration of the nutritional quality, particularly in the elite high-yielding cereal crops. Consequences of the poor nutritional supply led to retarded growth and anemia, frequently diagnosed among children and women. Several approaches have been employed to improve the nutritional supply to consumers such as dietary diversification, supplemental food fortification, industrial fortification of food items and dairy products. However, the biofortification of major cereal crops has been sought as the most economical and sustainable approach to address widespread malnutrition. Though crop nutrient dynamics is complex, which involves multiple physiological and molecular processes, the progress in genomics-assisted breeding and high-throughput plant phenotyping has opened new opportunities to improve crops with high yield and nutrition. Nevertheless, an integrated approach is warranted by combining microbial-assisted augmented nutritional supply with conventional and advanced breeding approaches for biofortification. This review majorly focuses on major challenges in breeding nutrient rich crops and discusses opportunities, which can help in achieving nutrient-rich crops in future.