Colored rice breeding: A new approach of biofortification

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Abstract

A quality crop product is the prime demand of a consumer. But due to high-yield-oriented varieties and severe soil nutrient depletion, consumable grains lack many essential nutrients that are beneficial to human health. Besides biofortification, coloured rice breeding might be another approach through which the rice crop could be enriched with beneficial nutrients. Since rice is the staple food of about half of the world population, malnutrition could be reduced drastically and improve millions of health.

 Background

Rice is the staple food of about half of the world's population. It is the main source of calories for one-third of the population globally. Rice is second to wheat in terms of production and area coverage. The main beauty of the rice crop is that it can be grown in both waterlogging conditions and water non logged conditions. Rice is grown in different parts of the world except Antarctica.

After the green revolution, scientists and policymakers mainly focused on crop yield increment. Because there were severe food deficits that had to be addressed by the country's government. After a few decades in the 1980s, scientists felt the necessity of quality crops and Harvest Plus started to act on it.

Malnutrition is a global health problem. Malnutrition may be due to a lack of essential nutritional elements. Some nutritional elements are found in higher quantities in some crop varieties, whereas other elements might be found in lower quantities. The major issue is that if a highly consumable crop contains nutritional elements in higher amounts, the problem of malnutrition may not arise. But it has been observed that major consumable crops rice, maize, and wheat lack many essential nutritional elements, or if the elements are present in very low quantities. For example, many high-yielding rice varieties have been observed to have low amounts of zinc and iron. Since zinc and iron are needed in high amounts for the body, they are supplied through tablets and tonics.

Thus, there needs to be a new strategy that can address the malnutrition problem arising due to elements like zinc and iron. Such of problem can be addressed by fortifying popular rice varieties with zinc and iron elements. Fortification (enrichment) may be done through different ways, i.e., either directly inserting genes by genetic engineering or by conventional breeding, where any popular varieties are crossed with high iron or zinc-containing varieties, and the subsequent progeny is selected.

Colored Rice Breeding Helps to Produce Rice Packed With More Nutrition

Rice is the staple food of about half of the world's population. It is grown in all parts of the world except Antarctica. Based on color, rice may be white, brown, black, red, or yellow (golden rice), etc. But mostly white rice is eaten in different parts of the world. Scientific reports show that white rice is comparatively less nutritious than brown, red, and black rice. Thus, if we were able to improve the nutritional value of white rice, we could reduce malnutrition and meet the UN-SDG goal.

Colored Rice Breeding

Colored rice breeding helps to achieve the UN-SDG goal by developing more nutritious rice, which could reduce malnutrition. In the colored rice breeding scheme, we cross our well-adapted white rice variety with black or red rice and select the next generation subsequently. Finally, we get a new rice variety whose quality gets tested and, if appropriate, released as a variety. The new rice is packed with more nutrients, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, I, Se, K, Na, etc than the white rice.

To develop a nutritious rice variety, it may take 11-13 years through a conventional breeding approach and 5-6 years by a molecular marker-assisted breeding scheme. Still, some attempts are going on in colored rice breeding to produce nutritious rice. Scientists are more tend to increase rice yield rather than produce nutritious rice. Thus, we must be aware that governments and concerned scientists need to work on colored rice so that we can produce more nutritious food for the people.

Harvest Plus, a CGIAR-based organization, works on biofortification of rice, maize, and wheat. It develops different genotypes of rice, particularly fortified with either Iron or Zinc, and sends these genotypes to local research stations of different countries. If the genotypes show better performance in their local surrounding, the variety is released locally. For example, Bangladesh released a zinc-fortified variety in 2016.

IRRI has already developed a golden rice packed with vitamin A precursor through genetic engineering techniques. Golden rice is a GMO crop. The golden rice, when consumed, is supposed to cure blindness, which occurs due to a lack of vitamin A. Though this rice was successfully tested several years ago, it is still not cultivated. It is due to legal problems such as a ban on GMO-produced crops by different countries, a lack of seed among farmers, each year farmers have to purchase new golden rice seed for their cultivation, a lack of knowledge about golden rice farming technology, a lack of rice market, etc.  

Introduction to Black Rice

Black rice is a naturally grown local landrace of rice whose endosperm looks black due to the presence of a special chemical compound, anthocyanin. Similar to white rice, black rice endosperm looks black, thus named black rice. Reports suggest that black rice is packed with a high level of nutrients compared to white, red, and brown rice. This rice originated from China and is still widely cultivated near the Yangtze River. Several improved varieties have been developed from black rice landraces. A few varieties of black rice are also grown in different countries such as South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and Nepal.

Anthocyanin is a chemical compound that works as an excellent antioxidant that detoxifies poisonous substances produced in the body. It is reported that blueberries contain the highest amount of anthocyanin among different fruits, and black rice has five times more anthocyanin than the blue berry. But the amount of anthocyanin depends on the black rice variety. 

Improve the food habits

We have to change our food habits according to our needs. The main role of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (UN_SDG) is to reduce malnutrition by supplying more nutritious food to those people who are deprived of nutritious food around the world. Mostly Asian and African people are at high risk of malnutrition. It may be due to a lack of food, a lack of education, lack of awareness about diets and their health.

Keywords: biofortification, colored rice, breeding, nutrition, brown rice, black rice, golden rice, US SDG goal

 

 

 

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