Current Knowledge on Genetic Biofortiﬁcation in Lentil

Jitendra Kumar, Debjyoti Sen Gupta, Shiv Kumar Agrawal, Sanjeev Gupta, Narendra Pratap Singh. (24/8/2016). Current Knowledge on Genetic Biofortiﬁcation in Lentil. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 64 (33).

Abstract

Micronutrient deﬁciency in the human body, popularly known as “hidden hunger”, causes many health problems. It presently aﬀects >2 billion people worldwide, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Biofortiﬁcation of food crop varieties is one way to combat the problem of hidden hunger using conventional plant breeding and transgenic methods. Lentils are rich sources of protein, micronutrients, and vitamins including iron, zinc, selenium, folates, and carotenoids. Lentil genetic resources including germplasm and wild species showed genetic variability for these traits. Studies revealed that a single serving of lentils could provide a signiﬁcant amount of the recommended daily allowance of micronutrients and vitamins for adults. Therefore, lentils have been identiﬁed as a food legume for biofortiﬁcation, which could provide a whole food solution to the global micronutrient malnutrition. The present review discusses the current ongoing eﬀorts toward genetic biofortiﬁcation in lentils using classical breeding and molecular marker-assisted approaches