Biofortification in Pulses

Abstract

Biofortification is a sustainable and cost-effective method of delivering micronutrients to the population. Unfortunately, major food crops are poor sources of one or more micronutrients which are essential for normal growth and development of humans. The present manuscript describes the biofortification of pulses by breeding, agronomy, microbiology, and genetic modification based approaches. There are some accomplishments by traditional breeding approaches, mutation breeding, and foliar/root application of respective fertilizers in pulses. But research on marker development and their utilization in marker-assisted breeding is still in initial phases. Pulses are mostly non-staple legumes; therefore, these have received little attention from the scientific community. But considering their richness in protein content and dietary fibers these have the potential to be nutraceutical foods. Therefore, the biofortification of pulses with increased nutritional quality is expected to gain attention in the future.