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Q.What is biofortification? Explain with respect to GM food plants.

Maharashtra MsbshseMaharashtra HSC (MSBSHSE) Board 2025Subjective· 3mImportance★★★★★
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Biofortification is the breeding (conventional or through genetic engineering) of crop varieties with enhanced levels of vitamins, minerals, proteins or healthy fats.

Biofortification breeds/engineers crops richer in essential nutrients; Golden Rice (vitamin A) is the flagship GM example.

Biofortification aims to combat micronutrient malnutrition ("hidden hunger") by increasing the nutritional value of staple food crops themselves, rather than relying on dietary diversification or supplementation. This can be achieved through conventional selective breeding of naturally nutrient-rich varieties, or, more powerfully, through genetic engineering, where genes encoding key biosynthetic enzymes are transferred into a crop to enable it to produce a nutrient it normally lacks or has too little of. The best-known example is Golden Rice, a transgenic rice variety engineered with genes (from daffodil/maize and a soil bacterium) encoding enzymes of the beta-carotene biosynthetic pathway, so the rice endosperm accumulates beta-carotene (provitamin A, giving the grain i …

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