Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L), one of the most important food crops in the world, forms the staple diet of more than half of the world population. Micronutrient malnutrition, particularly Fe and Zn deficiency affect over three billion people worldwide mostly in developing countries. Micronutrient enrichment of plants/crops with high bioavailable micronutrient content using conventional breeding and genetic engineering approaches is being used to improve the nutritional quality of major crops. In the present study, variability for physio-morphological traits and mineral (iron and zinc) content analysis in dehusked rice grains was assessed in a collection of 213 BC1F4 rice plants of cross PAU201��Palman579 rice genotypes. BC1F4 population displayed large variation for various physio-morphological traits including plant height (60-120 cm, PAU201-92.0�±0.51 cm; Palman579-102.0�±1.15 cm), effective number of tillers per plant (4-22, PAU201-12.3�±1.95; Palman579-9.6�±1.06), panicle length (11-29.3 cm, PAU201-21.9�±0.24 cm; Palman579-23.2�±0.53 cm) and grain yield per plant (3.26-54.79 g, PAU201- 20.01�±0.71 g; Palman579-15.69�±0.99 g). Dehusked rice grain samples harvested from the BC1F4 population also demonstrated huge variation in iron content (3.9-86.4 �¼g/g, PAU201-44.6�±0.77 �¼g/g; Palman579-335.0�±1.93 �¼g/g) and zinc content (1.6- 140.7 �¼g/g, PAU201-19.6�±1.29 �¼g/g; Palman579-15.2�±1.19 �¼g/g). Although rice is not considered a major mineral source in the diet, any increase in its mineral concentration could significantly help in reducing iron and zinc deficiency in humans

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