Genetic Enhancement of Rice for Nutritional traits - Present Status and Future Strategies

Rice is an indispensable diet for over 3 billion people in over 100 nations worldwide, but vitamins, essential amino acids, minerals and phytochemicals are lacking in it.A better understanding of the processes that are involved in the synthesis, uptake, metabolism of macronutrients and their transportation is needed to improve the nutritional aspects of rice.Several attempts have been made over the last decade to brush up nutritional and other quality traits, either through traditional breeding or biotechnological approaches.The present study provides a concise overview of the accomplishments and challenges associated with genetic as well as metabolic engineering approaches aimed at improving the quality of rice grains.