Advances in vegetable breeding for nutraceuticals and quality traits

Abstract

Vegetable crops are rich in dietary micronutrients (minerals, vitamins), antioxidents and functional phytochemicals ‘nutraceuticals’. However, some of the elements are of public health concern such as β-carotene, iron, calcium and folic acid which attracts breeders’ interest to improve their content in food sources including vegetable crops so that their dietary intake could be increased and their deficiency problems reduced. Some nutraceutical compounds such as anthocyanin, β-carotene, lycopene and glucosinolates have been reported to play active role in health and their contents have been found more in beet root, cauliflower, carrot and broccoli, respectively. The attempts through conventional breeding methods have been slow and inadequate, hence new developments in molecular and biochemical diagnostics tools and techniques showed promise in improving the nutraceutical contents and other quality traits. Molecular markers, next generation sequencing, RNA interference (RNAi) and genetic engineering have great promise in reducing time and cost involved in quality breeding. The present review summarise attempts and potential of improving the nutraceuticals and quality traits in vegetable crops.