Plant Genetic Improvement for Human Health and Nutrition

The plant kingdom offers a multitude of potential food products that humans have selected from and attempted to improve upon over the ages.  As a group, plant-derived foods can supply almost all of the micro- and macronutrients established as essential for human existence, as well as a number of unique phytochemicals that have been linked to the promotion of good health.  Unfortunately, not all plant foods contain a full complement of these compounds, nor do they usually contain these components at sufficient density to attain recommended dietary intakes in a reasonable serving size.  Thus, crop scientists have undertaken efforts to manipulate and enhance the composition and quality of our plant-based food supply as a means to ensure optimal health and well-being.  These efforts can involve either classical breeding strategies or transgenic approaches. In either case, knowledge of the relevant genes or contributing loci are needed to develop strategies to effectively manipulate various crop plants.   In this presentation, recent genomics-based approaches that are targeting health and nutrition related traits in rice and bean will be discussed.  The need for and deployment of enhanced varieties for various target populations will also be presented.