Wheat has low levels of the micronutrients iron and zinc in the grain, which contributes to 2 billion people suffering from micronutrient deficiency globally. While wheat flour is commonly fortified during processing, an attractive and more sustainable solution is biofortification, which could improve micronutrient content in the human diet, without the sustainability issues and costs associated with conventional fortification. Although many studies have used quantitative trait loci mapping and genome-wide association to identify genetic loci to improve micronutrient contents, recent developments in genomics offer an opportunity to accelerate marker discovery and use gene-focussed approaches to engineer improved micronutrient content in wheat. The recent publication of a high-quality wheat genome sequence, alongside gene expression atlases, variation datasets and sequenced mutant populations, provides a foundation to identify genetic loci and genes controlling micronutrient content in wheat. We discuss how novel genomic resources can identify candidate genes for biofortification, integrating knowledge from other cereal crops, and how these genes can be tested using gene editing, transgenic and TILLING approaches. Finally, we highlight key challenges remaining to develop wheat cultivars with high levels of iron and zinc.

中文翻译：

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应用基因组资源加速小麦生物强化

小麦谷物中的微量营养素铁和锌含量较低，导致全球 20 亿人缺乏微量营养素。虽然小麦粉通常在加工过程中进行强化，但一个有吸引力且更可持续的解决方案是生物强化，它可以提高人类饮食中的微量营养素含量，而没有与传统强化相关的可持续性问题和成本。尽管许多研究使用数量性状基因座作图和全基因组关联来识别遗传基因座以提高微量营养素含量，但基因组学的最新发展提供了加速标记发现和使用以基因为重点的方法来设计改善小麦微量营养素含量的机会。最近发表的高质量小麦基因组序列以及基因表达图谱，变异数据集和测序的突变种群，为鉴定控制小麦微量营养素含量的遗传位点和基因提供了基础。我们讨论了新的基因组资源如何识别用于生物强化的候选基因，整合来自其他谷类作物的知识，以及如何使用基因编辑、转基因和 TILLING 方法测试这些基因。最后，我们强调了开发铁和锌含量高的小麦品种所面临的主要挑战。转基因和 TILLING 方法。最后，我们强调了开发铁和锌含量高的小麦品种所面临的主要挑战。转基因和 TILLING 方法。最后，我们强调了开发铁和锌含量高的小麦品种所面临的主要挑战。