The presentation describes about the nutritional deficiency symptoms, deficiency status at both national and global scenario which signifies the need for breeding strategies for nutritional improvement as well as the various strategies for improvement of nutritional quality in major cereal crops.

1. Credit seminar
on
Breeding Strategies for Nutritional
Quality in Major Cereal Crops
GP 591
2016-17
MAJOR ADVISOR SPEAKER
Dr. Daisy Basandrai Heresh Puren
A-2015-30-038
DEPARTMENT OF CROP IMPROVEMENT
CH. SARWAN KUMAR HIMACHAL PRADESH KRISHI VISHVAVIDYALAYA
PALAMPUR ( H.P. )

2. • INTRODUCTION
 CEREALS
 NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF CEREALS
 NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF MAJOR CEREAL CROPS
• IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITIONAL IMPROVE MENT
 GLOBAL MALNUTRITIONAL STATUS
 NATIONAL MALNUTRITIONAL STATUS
• STRATAGIES OF NUTRITIONAL IMPROVEMENT
• CASE STUDY

3. • Cereals are originated from Latin word “Cerealis” or “Ceres” which is the
‘Goddess of Grain’.
• Cereals are the edible seeds or grains of the grass
family Gramineae.
• Cereals are staple foods globally from ancient
times and has historical significance in human
civilization.
• Important sources of various nutrients in
both developed and developing countries.
• Regular consumption of wholegrain cereals
signifies role in the prevention of many chronic
diseases.

4. • Current estimates of annual cereal consumption is;
 developing countries – 170.7 kg /capita
 developed countries- 149kg/capita (FAO 2016).
• Global production of cereal crop is 2605 million tones
Rice - 499.1 million tones
Wheat - 740.7 million tones
Maize - 1051 million tones
Minor cereals - 262 million tone (FAO 2016)

5. Nutritional value of cereals
1. Macronutrients:
 Carbohydrate
• Cereals are often classed as carbohydrate rich foods (nearly
75% carbohydrate)
• Common varieties : 25–27% of starch is amylose
• waxy varieties : most starch is amylopectin
(e.g. rice and corn)
 Protein
• Cereals contain about 6–15% protein (Goldberg 2003). The major
storage proteins in,
 wheat : gliadins and glutenin
 rice : glutelin (oryzenin)
 maize : prolamin (zein)

6. 2. Micronutrients:
 Vitamins
• Cereals contains no vitamin C or vitamin B12, no vitamin A and apart from
yellow corn, no beta-carotene (Courdain 1999).
• However, cereals are an important source of most B vitamins, especially
thiamin, riboflavin and niacin (Kulp & Ponte 2000)
• Cereals also contain appreciable amounts of vitamin E
 Minerals
• Cereals are low in sodium and are a good source of potassium, in common
with most plant foods.
• Wholegrain cereals also contain considerable amounts of iron, magnesium
and zinc, as well as lower levels of many trace elements, e.g. selenium.
• Rice contains the highest level of selenium among the cereal grains,
providing between 10 and 13 mg per 100 g.
• Depending on the selenium content of the soil the selenium content will
vary (Lyons et al. 2003).

7. Non-starch polysaccharides
• All cereals are a rich source of NSP
• Two types of NSP – insoluble and soluble – and although
both may help with weight control (by delaying food
leaving the stomach)
e.g. Arabinoxylans
Phytochemicals
• Cereals contain a range of phytochemicals or plant
bioactive substances
• It has health-promoting effects

8. CEREAL CROPS…
Wheat
Barley
Oat
Millet
Rice
Sorghum
Triticale
Rye
Corn

9. MAJOR CEREAL CROPS…
1. RICE
2. WHEAT
3. MAIZE

10. WHAT IS NUTRITIONAL
QUALITY?
• Quality refers to the suitability or fitness of an economic plant
product in relation to its end use.
• Definition of quality varies according to our needs from the
viewpoint of seeds, crop growth, crop product, post-harvest
technology, consumer preferences, cooking quality, keeping
quality, transportability etc. (Gupta, 2001).
• The nutritional quality refers to the suitability or fitness of a plant
product for human and animal consumption.

11. NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF RICE
PARAMETER WHITE RICE COLOURED RICE
Calories 130 111-112
Water 69% 73%
Protein 2.4g 2.3-2.6g
Carbohydrates 28.7g 23-23.5g
Fat 0.2g 0.8-0.9g
Fiber 0-0.3g 1.8g
Iron (Fe) 1.46-1.49mg 0.2-0.5mg
Magnesium (Mg) 8-13mg 43-44mg
Zinc (Zn) 0.4-0.42mg 0.62-0.63mg
Copper (Cu) 0.04-0.07mg 0.08-0.1mg
Calcium (Ca) 1-3mg 10mg
Manganese (Mn) 0.36-0.38mg 0.91-1.1mg
Phosphorus 33 -37 mg 77-83mg
Potassium 26-29mg 43-79mg
Sodium 0 mg 1-5mg
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) 0.16-0.17mg 0.1mg
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 0.02 mg 0.01-0.03mg
Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 1.49-1.84mg 1.33-1.53mg
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic
acid)
0.4-0.41mg 0.28-0.39mg
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) 0.05-0.06mg 0.14-0.15mg
Folate 58-59 µg 4 µg
Ricepedia-CGIAR

12. • Rice is superior to other cereal crops in terms of
protein quality with higher lysine (3.8-4.5%).
• It contains high starch i.e. nearly 94%.
However, it lacks;
 Vitamin A
 Vitamin B12
 Inadequate amount of essential amino acids like Lys,
Met, Thr and Trp.
 Less amount of micronutrient like Fe and Zn.

13. • Well, Red rice is having 2 to 3 times higher Fe and Zn content than the
white rice.
• It is also having scavenging activity due to its antioxidant property.
• Red rice is very nutritional crop and have various medicinal properties
in curing several diseases including heart disease, constipation,
diabetes, colorectal cancer, etc.
( Red Pearl of Himalaya, IRRI)

14. NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF WHEAT
HOSENEY 1994
Wheat Grain 70% Extraction flour
Ash 1.55% 0.4
Fibre 2.17% Trace
Protein,% 13.9 12.9
Oil,% 2.52 1.17
Starch,% 63.7 70.9
Thiamin, µg/g 3.73 0.7
Riboflavin, µg/g 1.7 0.7
Niacin, µg/g 55.6 8.5
Iron, mg/100g 3.08 1.42
Sodium, mg/100g 3.2 2.2
Potassium, mg/100g 316 83
Calcium, mg/100g 27.9 12.9
Magnesium, mg/100g 143 27.2
Copper, mg/100g 0.61 0.18
Zinc, mg/100g 3.77 1.17
Total Phosphates, mg/100g 350 98
Phytate phosphorous, mg/100g 345 30.4
Chlorine, mg/100g 39 48.4

15. It contains :
• a lot of starch and other carbohydrate
• 11% of protein (albumins, globulins, gliadins and glutenins)
• 2% of fat
• 13% of fibre
• 1% of mineral (iron, phosphorus, potassium magnesium, calcium,
zinc, manganese)
• high amount of entire vitamins of B complex except vitamin B12
• Wheat germs are rich in vitamin E and enzymes.
However, it is deficient in;
 Bioavailability of Zn and Fe due to phytic acid inhibition
 lysine

16. Wheat gluten Allergy, Intolerance and
Enteropathy
• Gluten is the viscoelastic complex mainly formed of
glutenins and gliadenins.
• Adverse reaction to gluten causes allergy due to naturally
occurring constituent namely COELIAC disease.
• Patient of coeliac develops gliadenin specific igA and igG
antibodies.
• However, frequency of COELIAC disease is more prevalent
in European countries (Sweden- 1 in 200, America- 1 in
133) but recently reported in India also.

17. SYMPTOMS OF CELIAC…

18. NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF MAIZE
The Corn grains contains :-
• 60-70% of starch
• quite a lot of roughage
• Proteins quality (albumins(3%), globulins (3%), zeins (60%) and
glutelins(34%)
• vitamins from the group B
• vitamins: D, E, K
• provitamin A
• The corn grains are a source of Omega -3 acids.

19. • The corn is a perfect source of minerals (potassium, sodium, calcium,
magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, zinc and
iodine)
• Maize is deficient in lysine and tryptophan necessary for protein
synthesis.
• Due to deficiency of lysine, excess consumption of maize causes
PELLAGRA disease.

20. Why We Need Nutritional
Quality Improvement
Strategy?

21. GLOBAL MALNUTRITION STATUS
• Out Of 7 Billion World Population;
 About 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient
malnutrition
 1.5 billion world population suffer from Zinc deficiency
 1.6 billion population suffer from Iron deficiency
 1 billion people reside in iodine deficient regions
 400 million people have vitamin A deficiency
 800 million people suffer from calorie deficiency
• Out Of 5 Billion Adults Worldwide;
 Nearly 2 billion are overweight or obese
 One in 12 has type 2 diabetes

22. • Out Of 667 Million Children Under Age 5 Worldwide
 159 million are too short for their age (stunted)
 50 million do not weigh enough for their height (wasted)
 41 million are overweight (obese)
• Out Of 129 Countries
 57 countries have serious levels of both undernutrition
and adult overweight (obesity)
 Malnutrition accounts ~30 million death/year
Source : GLOBAL NUTRITIONAL REPORT 2016

23. Micronutrient Deficiency ..
Iron Deficiency
• Is important co factor of various enzymes for basic functions in humans
• Affecting mainly
– children under 5 yrs.
– poor women of childbearing age
• Symptoms
– poor mental development
– depressed immune function to anaemia
• In childhood impairs
– physical growth,
– mental development,
– learning ability.
• In adults,
– it reduces the ability to do physical labour.
• Severe anaemia increases the risk of death for women in childbirth.

24. Zinc deficiency;
• Fifth major cause of diseases and deaths in these countries.
• Health problems caused by zinc deficiency include
o anorexia,
o dwarfism,
o weak immune system
o skin lesions,
o hypogonadism and
o diarrhoea

25. Vitamin A deficiency;
• A serious public health problem
– in developing world,
– particularly in Africa and South East Asia.
• Globally, 3 million preschool aged children
- visible eye damage
• Annually,
– an estimated 2,50,000 to 5,00000 preschool children go blind
– approximately two-thirds of these children die within months of going
blind
• Nearly 9 billion children die from malnutrition each year
• Symptoms include;
-night blindness,
- increased susceptibility to infection and cancer,
- anaemia (lack of red blood cells or haemoglobin),
- deterioration of the eye tissue, and
- cardiovascular disease

26. Foliate (Vitamin B9) deficiency;
• Widespread, especially in developing countries.
• Results in serious disorders, including
 Neural Tube Defects Such As Spina Bifida In Infants
 Megaloblastic Anaemia
• A large proportion of these children die from common illness that could have
been avoid through adequate nutrition

27. Nearly Half of The World Population is Affected
From Iron & Vitamin A Deficiency
Source:- Welch and Graham, 2010; Field Crops Res.

28. Wide Spread Zinc Deficiency
(Alloway, 2014, In: Zinc in soils and Crop Nutrition. IZA Publications, Brussels)

29. NATIONAL MALNUTRITION STATUS
India is one of the countries having
problem of malnutrition
More than 50% of women, 46% of
children below 3 years are
underweight and 38% are stunted
As per India state hunger index, all
the states are with serious to
alarming indices with M.P. most
alarming.
Source : World Bank

30. How
can we
Nourish
1.2Billion
People?

31. “Food Availability Is Not A
Problem, Nor It Like To Be….
More Important Is What Kind
Of Food Will Be Available”

32. BREEDING STRATEGIES For
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
1. Nutritious crop ( rich in nutrients)
2. Biofortified crop;
 Conventional breeding techniques/methods
 Molecular Breeding approach
 Molecular marker assisted breeding approach
 Genetic engineering approach
 Transgenic approach
 Agrobacterium mediated transformation

33. What is Bio-Fortification
Bio-fortification:
Greek word “bios” means “life” and Latin word “fortificare”
means “make strong”.
Bio-fortification:
 Biofortification is a method of breeding crops to increase
their nutritional value
 Biofortification refers to increasing genetically the bio-
available mineral content of food crops (Brinch-Pederson
et al., 2007).
 Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification
because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious
as the plants are growing, rather than having nutrients
added to the foods when they are being processed.

34. Bio-fortification Differs Ordinary Fortification
More
nutrients
consumed
Dietry
supplements
Varied,
plant-based
diet

35. Importance of crop
Biofortification
Some points present here to clearly identified role of crop
bio fortification …….
 To overcome the malnutrition's in human beings
 To increment of nutritional quality in daily diets
 To improvement of plant or crop quality and increment
of variability in germplasm
 Biofortification for important crop plants through
biotechnological applications is a cost-effective and
sustainable solution.

36. Biofortification in India
 Indian Parliament recently has passed a budget which
includes $15 million for biofortification (DBT) for rice,
wheat and maize over five years.
 Crop leaders appointed for each crops; target
nutrients are iron, zinc and vitamin A.
 Joint meetings held every years
 MOU has been signed
Source : MoA, Govt. of India

37. Genetic Bio-fortified Crops
Source : Harvest Plus Programme

38. Pathway for Biofortification
Discovery
Identify target population
Set nutrient target level
Screen germplasm & gene discovery
Development
Breed bio-fortified crops
Test the performance of New crop varieties
Measure Nutrient retention in crop
Evaluate Nutrient Absorption & Impact
Dissemination
Develop strategies to disseminate the seed
Promote marketing & Consumption of Bio-fortified crops
Improve Nutritional Status of Target Population
Source : HarvestPlus, 2009

39. Breeding Target
 Rice
 Iron (Fe)
 Zinc (Zn)
 Vitamin A
 Wheat
 Iron (Fe)
 Zinc (Zn)
 Phytase activity
 Resistant starch
 Maize
 Quality Protein (Lysine and Tryptophan)

40. • Rice is a staple food crop for more than 1 billion poor people.
• The Rice endosperm is deficient in many nutrients including
vitamins, proteins, micronutrients, etc.
• The Aleurone layer of dehusked rice grains is nutrient rich but is lost
during milling and polishing.
• Rice plants produce β-carotene (provitamin A) in green tissues but
not in the endosperm (the edible part of the seed).
• To overcome the deficiency of vit A in human beings.
Rice Biofortification

41. Breeding for High Zinc Rice
 3500 rice accessions, 100 popular lines have been
screened
 14 genotypes with high Zn content in polished grains with
35-40ug/g have been identified.
 Selection and phenotyping of 40 rice genotypes are under
multi-location trails.
Source: MSSRF & IGAU, Raipur

42. World’s first high-zinc rice released in
Bangladesh

43. BRRI dhan 62
• the world’s first zinc-rich rice variety has been
released in Bangladesh (2013).
• BRRI dhan 62 has 20 to 22 ppm of zinc while the
average zinc content of rice is 14 to 16 ppm. The
variety was developed using conventional breeding
methods by scientists at the Bangladesh Rice Research
Institute (BRRI).

44. Methods used for Rice Biofortification
Marker Assisted Selection
 Five Mapping population have
been developed and purified
 Molecular marker for genes
associated with iron uptake,
transport and accumulation
have been designated
 Marker Assisted Selection is
eligible for organic certification

45. Genetic Engineering For Bio-Fortification
 Genetic engineering is the obvious alternative to enhance the
β-carotene levels in crop plants.
 The development of the ‘golden rice’ proved that, it is possible
to redirect a complete biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids by
genetic engineering of multiple genes encoding key enzymes of
the pathway.
 So, Golden Rice is such a bio-fortified crop.
 A example of Golden Rice was developed in the year 2000

46. The Golden Rice Solution
IPP (Isopentenyl pyrophosphate)
Geranylgeranyl diphosphate
Phytoene
Lycopene
 -carotene
(vitamin A precursor)
Phytoene synthase
Phytoene desaturase
Lycopene-beta-cyclase
ξ-carotene desaturase
Daffodil gene
Single bacterial gene;
performs both functions
Daffodil gene
-Carotene Pathway Genes Added
Vitamin A
Pathway
is complete
and functional
Golden
Rice

47. How Does It Work?
Addition of 2 genes in rice genome will complete the
biosynthetic pathway:
1. Phytoene synthase (psy): derived from daffodils
(Narcissus pseudonarcissus). Psy is a transferase
enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of carotenioids. It
catalyzes the conversion of GGPP to phytoene.
2. Lycopene cyclase (crt1)- isolated from soil bacteria
Erwina uredovora.
3. Produce enzymes and catalysts for the synthesis of
carotenoids in the endosperm of rice.

48. Swarna Golden Swarna

49. Golden Rice 2
• Announced in 2005, produces up to 23 times more carotenoids than
golden rice (up to 37 µg/g), and preferentially accumulates beta-
carotene (up to 31 µg/g of the 37 µg/g of carotenoids)
• To construct Golden Rice 2, the phytoene synthetase gene (psy) from
maize and the carotene desaturase gene (crtl) from Erwinia uredovora
were inserted into rice.
• Evaluation of phytoene synthase from several plant sources led to the
identification of the psy gene from maize as the most efficacious source,
resulting in the greatest accumulation of total carotenoids and β-
carotene.

51. Biofortification for Iron and Zinc
1. High iron and enhanced carotenoids/beta-carotene
2. Reduced content of phytate in rice grains
Mutational
breeding
Transgenic plant
strategy
Screening for iron-
rich rice varieties
Increased bioavailability of Fe and Zn

52. Varieties from H.P
• Palam laal dhan -1 (HPR-2720)
 released in 2013 from State Variety Released
Committee.
 red pericarp and aleurone layer is rich in
micronutrients viz.
 Fe, Zn and Mn.
 Has premium price in market.
• Other varieties : Chohartu (Shimla), karad and Sukara
red (Chamba)

53. Breeding strategy for Wheat
Low genetic variation in cultivated wheat for Zn/Fe
Wild relatives (T. spelts, Ae. tauschii, emmer wheat and
landraces) known to have upto 190 ppm
Recreated synthetics, wild and landraces are being
used as Progenitor for high Zn/Fe
Limited backcross approach to introgress high Zn
genes into elite wheats
Selected bulk scheme- Most effective method
2nd round of breeding using wide-cross derived lines
with better yielding parents
A rapid, High-throughput, non-destructive XRF
machine being used for fast-track Zn/Fe analysis

54. Wheat Biofortification Initiatives
CGIAR’s program to breed nutrient dense staple foods
 Synthetic hexaploid wheat from T. dicoccum and Aegilops taushii with
high micronutreint were used in CIMMYT wheat breeding program.
 Developed agronomically superior wheat with 100% more Zinc and 30%
more Iron than the morden cultivars.
 Zn intake was 72% higher from the biofortified wheat with 95%
extraction and 0.5mg/d higher absorption than the control wheat.
Department of Biotechnology, Govt. India “Biofortification of
Wheat for enhanced micronutrients using conventional and
molecular breeding" Phase I (2005) and Phase II (2011)
 PAU, Ludhiana using progenitor A and B genomes and related species
 IARI, New Delhi using progenitor D genome
 IIT Roorkee; Eternal University, Baru Sahib; G.B.P.U.A.&T. Pantnagar
using non-progenitor species with S, U and M genomes

55. Released Varieties
Sources : HarvestPlus Wheat for Zinc

56. Quality Protein Maize (QPM)
 Maize lacks lysine and tryptophan necessary for protein synthesis
 Zeins usually account for 50-70% of the endosperm proteins and are
characterized by a high content of glutamine, leucine and proline. But
they are devoid of lysine and tryptophan.
 Quality Protein Maize (QPM) has less zein fraction and more non-zein
fraction so that it has more lysine and tryptophan content.
 QPM contains a naturally-occurring mutant (opaque2) maize gene
that increases the amount of those two essential amino acids

57.  Due to pleiotropic effect of opaque2 it was tempered to utilize it in
breeding programmes as it produced soft endosperm. Which leads
to pest and disease susceptibility and low yield.
 Breeders at CYMMYT have continued working and converted
opaque-2 maize into variety.
 It has high nutritional quality, high yields, greater hardness, pest
and disease resistance, twice the lysine and tryptophan and other
amino acids.
 Two studies shows that children consuming QPM had a growth rate
in height 15% greater than that of children who ate conventional
maize (CIMMYT, 2014)
 However, varieties with high QPM also has zein protein fraction up
to 30-40% along with high lysine and tryptophan content which
prevents from PELLAGRA. Ex; HQPM1.

60. Some of QPM Varieties…
SHAKTIMAN

61. Genotypes from H.P
• KI-29 recorded highest kernel iron concentration
(39.75 mg/kg) followed by KI-16(36.51mg/kg) and
KI-30(34.03mg/kg) .
• The inbred recorded highest kernel Zn concentration are
BAJIM-06-01 (29.74 mg/kg) followed by BAJIM-06-15
(26.10 mg/kg) and BAJIM-06-20 (25.60 mg/kg).
• The inbred recorded highest carotenoid concentration are
Jaisinghpur Local (27.61 μg/g), BAJIM-06-01 (27.01 μg/g),
LM-19-07 (26.57 μg/g) and BAJIM-08-26 (26.28 μg/g).
• HQPM-1: Released in 2009.

62. CASE STUDY

63. • 84 cultivars were collected from various agro-ecological areas in West Bengal
based upon their agro-morphological traits and iron and zinc content.
• 16 DUS character data were employed such as vegetative and reproductive.
• Iron and zinc concentration were found in range of 0.25 – 34.8µg/g and 0.85-
195.3µg/g respectively.
• Highest Zn was found in Nepali kalam which is 195.3µg/g

64. • Genetic variation was studied in 100 advanced breeding lines developed for Indian
peninsular zones.
• Measured phytic acid, inorganic phosphates, iron and zinc content in seeds and 100
kernel weight.
• Advance breeding lines showed wide variation for the characters studied viz. phytic acid
content ranges from 4.97mg/g to 15.02 mg/g with mean of 9.58mg/g, iron and zinc
content ranges from 0.042 to 0.098 mg/g and 0.017 to 0.029 mg/g respectively and high
kernel weight ranges from 2.99 to 5.42 g.
• Phytic acid correlates negatively with kernel weight, Fe content showed high GCV and
heritability% as compared to Zn and low heritability of inorganic phosphate due to
environmental influence.

65. • Breeding strategy aiming to produce a set of SSIIa (starch synthases IIa) null durum wheat
is used.
• Characterized major traits such as seed weight, total starch, amylose, protein and β-glucan
content in a set of mutant families derived from the introgression of the SSIIa null trait into
Svevo, an elite Italian durum wheat cultivar.
• A large degree of variability was detected and used to select wheat lines with either
improved quality traits or agronomic performances.
• SSIIa null lines showed new rheological behavior and an increased content of all major
dietary fiber components, namely arabinoxylans, β-glucans and resistant starch.
• gene expression highlighted important differences in some genes involved in starch and β-
glucans biosynthesis.

66. • A set of forty eight maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes were evaluated for kernel
iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn) and carotenoid concentration (β-carotene).
• The results revealed significant genetic variation among maize genotypes for
Fe are CML145(41.03 mg/kg) recorded highest kernel iron concentration
followed by CML193(40.70mg/kg).
• The inbred CML169 (32.59mg/kg) recorded highest kernel Zn concentration
followed by CML193(32.32mg/kg) and CML152 (32.12mg/kg).
• The inbred CML162(27.09µg/g) recorded highest carotenoid concentration
followed by Jaisinghpur Local (27.61µg/g), BAJIM-06-01(27.01µg/g), Rato
Makki2(26.85µg/g) , LM-19-07(26.57µg/g) and BAJIM-08-26(26.28µg/g)

67. Source : Goudia & Hash, 2015

68. CONCLUSION
• There is deficient micronutrient intake in well over half of people
globally, notably women and children.
• Cereals are ideal vehicles for changing the balance of nutrient
intake of whole world population.
• Though we have reached to the highest yield potential but it do
not limits the nutritional requirement.
• Both conventional and molecular breeding are effective strategies
for potential economic enrichment of nutritional status to
overcome malnutrition problem worldwide.

69. Food is the moral right of
all who are born into this
world -- Borlaug
Nutritious food is the moral
right of all who are born
into this world