Brar B. , Jain S. , Jain R.K.

Department of Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125004, India
Author    Correspondence author
Rice Genomics and Genetics, 2015, Vol. 6, No. 9   doi: 10.5376/rgg.2015.06.0009
Received: 08 Sep., 2015    Accepted: 13 Oct., 2015    Published: 20 Oct., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the major source of food for more than half of the world’s population. As a model cereal crop, the complete genome sequences of rice has become fundamental tool for study gene functions and correlate it with the practical applications in plants. At present, rice researchers devote much effort to generating mineral rich rice genotypes to combact the micronutrient malnutrition. Such processes combine different techniques such as mineral content analysis for the available rice gemplasm, genetic transformation, molecular analysis, molecular breeding etc. Here, we briefly review the progress in biofortification of rice with micronutrient elements (Fe, Zn, and Vitamin A) and discuss the various aspects such as:- Rice and genetic diversity for mineral content, micronutrient malnutrition the hidden-hunger, biofortification, molecular and transgenic strategies for improving iron, zinc content, protein quality in rice.

Biofortification; Iron; Micronutrient malnutrition; Rice and zinc