Nutritionally enhanced biofortified wheat-based diets promote healthy lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster

Biofortification of food crops has been utilized as a cost-effective and feasible strategy to increase the nutritional value of food and improve the health of populations that have limited access to diverse diets and other micronutrient interventions. Wheat is one of the most widely grown staple crop in which conventional breeding approaches have been utilized for improvement in the content of iron, zinc, provitamin A, beta-carotene and anthocyanin content. This study utilized the short-lived invertebrate fruit fly model to test the effectiveness of biofortified wheat varieties in slowing down the ageing process under diverse dietary contexts that are representative of the diverse food consumption patterns. The anthocyanin rich blue, purple and black Indian wheat breeding lines with good yield potential were developed by crossbreeding by scientists at NABI, Mohali. Overall, our findings indicate that plant-based diets formulated with biofortified cereal crops promote healthy ageing and delay progression of diseases that are exacerbated by accumulation of oxidative damage.

 

For full article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2022.111697

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