Molecular markers: key biotechnology tools in the research and development of biofortified cereals

Micronutrient deficiencies in food crops affect one-third of world people, especially in developing countries. In many micronutrient-deficient regions, cereal grains as the dominant staple food are naturally low in nutritional minerals, increasing the risk of hidden hunger. Biofortification of cereals is a new approach to managemicronutrient deficiencies in developing countries. Predictive cost-benefit evaluates have proven that biofortification is important in controlling of malnutrition. Biofortification is the development of micronutrient-dense food crops using biotechnology and/or conventional breeding practices. Biofortified crop system is highly sustainable over years, cost-effective, target low-income households, and available in remote rural areas. Micronutrient enrichment traits are present in the genome of cereals that could permit substantial improvement in grain zinc, iron, Cu and so on without negatively impressing grain yield. The genetically fortified traits arestable across various climatic environments and soil types. Biotechnology tools in genomic, molecular markers, identifying nutrient absorption enhancers and inhibitor genes can provide better and more efficient complementary breeding tools. A significant development in the next few years will be the use of molecular markers associated with accumulation of nutritional minerals such as Zn, Fe, and Cu in cereals. The identification of majoreffect molecular markers can speed up the development of high yielding biofortified cereals even in micronutrientdeficient soils of Iran. DNA markers allow screening for micronutrient-rich crops independently of the environmental variability or growth stage. If markers are close enough to a gene of interest, they can be directly used in marker-assisted selection (MAS).

Keywords:

Biofortification , Micronutrient deficiency , Food quality , Molecular marker