This Research Topic is part of the Improving the Nutritional Content and Quality of Plants: Promises, Achievements, and Future Challenges series:
Improving the Nutritional Content and Quality of Plants: Promises, Achievements, and Future Challenges

Plants are the main source of calories for humans, yet only a handful of species are used for human consumption and for medicinal purposes. Rice, wheat, corn, beans, cassava, potato, sweet potato, sugar beets, and others, are the dietary base for the world’s population and represent important food staples for low-income communities. Besides being energy-dense and carbohydrate-rich, these crops are also an important entry point into the human diet for micronutrients, vitamins, and trace elements (both essential and toxic). Thus, breeding efforts aimed at improving crop nutrition and/or avoiding the accumulation of hazardous elements have direct impacts on human health. Similarly, plants have been traditionally used as medicine, and have been the source of biologically active compounds for years, while holding the promise to continue providing new molecules for medical application and improvement of human and other animals’ health.

It has been almost two decades since the first papers on biofortification were published, and flagship programs such as HarvestPlus were launched. Using a variety of plant modification strategies, including conventional breeding and genetic engineering, more nutritious crop varieties with higher amounts of vitamin A, iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), the three micronutrients identified by the WHO as most lacking in human diets globally, have been generated. Through this work, many genes and pathways important for nutrient accumulation in the edible parts of crop plants have been described and their potential uses for biotechnological application have been demonstrated. However, to date only a few biofortified crops are grown for human consumption, highlighting the fact that transfer of basic research into final products is still necessary. Moreover, the translation of traditional knowledge into science-based medicine is still in its infancy, and research on identification of plant-derived molecules that can be useful needs to be pursued.

In this Research Topic, we highlight achievements in the fields of biofortification and plant nutrition aimed at increasing the nutritional quality of crops, as well as how research on medical plants can further improve human health. We are interested in manuscripts dealing with the evaluation/prevalence/status of micronutrient malnutrition worldwide, including epidemiologic studies and clinical trials, and showing how biofortified crops could help at risk-populations. We are also interested in manuscripts demonstrating how different strategies can be applied to increase the nutritional value of food crops, ranging from agronomical practices to genetic engineering and new and existing plant breeding technologies (oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis, cisgenesis, and intragenesis, grafting, reverse breeding, synthetic genomics, etc). We also welcome studies showcasing how the inorganic composition of plants, also known as the ionome, is integrated, and how it can be manipulated for biofortification/food safety purposes. Papers pertaining to the legislature hurdles for the adoption of genetically engineered biofortified crops and consumer acceptability of such crops are also welcome. We also encourage papers focused on biologically active secondary compounds and medical plants. We welcome all types of articles, such as original research articles, method papers, comprehensive reviews, mini-reviews, perspective articles, and thought-provoking opinions.

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