Biofortification of Wheat Landraces: Recent QTL Mapping Advances

Abstract

Micronutrients play an indispensable role in human and animal growth. In the world, many people are suffering from malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency mainly due to lack of zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe). Several crops are grown, such as wheat, rice, maize, and legumes, to address the challenges of micronutrient deficiency. Wheat landraces are evidently proven to be a rich source of genetic variability as against modern cultivated varieties due to thousands of years of their cultivation under low input farming systems. Landraces serve as a potential reservoir of desirable allelic forms of valuable traits but are low in traits like Zn and Fe. Wheat is a major cereal consumed worldwide and could be a good source to provide these micronutrients. Biofortification in wheat can be an effective way to solve the problem of malnutrition. Biofortification in wheat varieties may be enhanced by the application of molecular breeding approaches, such as genome editing, transgenic technology, and marker-assisted selection. These biofortified wheat varieties show better adaptation to environments. In this chapter, we included the recent advances in quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in biofortified wheat and the techniques used to develop biofortified wheat varieties.