Genomics of mineral nutrient biofortification: Calcium, iron and zinc

Abstract

Dietary deficiencies affect nearly half of the people on the planet, who simply do not receive sufficient nutrition from the food they buy or grow. Inadequate calcium, iron, and zinc consumption create short and long term health problems, which in turn can magnify and stagnate national development. Dietary diversity, use of industrially fortified foods, and medical interventions are all effective solutions to this suite of related problems. However, each of these solutions requires infrastructure, economic support, and either education or access to markets, and thus are more suitable for the urban than rural poor. Biofortification, or the nutritional enhancement of staple and specialty crops, represents a low cost, sustainable, and potentially effective solution to addressing dietary deficiency and malnutrition in the rural poor. Recent progress on calcium, iron, and zinc biofortification using quantitative genetics, mutational genetics, and genetic engineering technologies will be discussed.