~ 1967 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2019; 7(1): 1967-1974 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 IJCS 2019; 7(1): 1967-1974 © 2019 IJCS Received: 21-11-2018 Accepted: 25-12-2018 Mangla Parikh Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India AK Sarawgi Professor and Head, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India D Sanjeeva Rao Scientist, Physiology and Biochemistry (Crop Production), ICAR- Indian Institute of Rice Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, India Bhawana Sharma Scientist, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India Correspondence Mangla Parikh Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India Assessment of genotypic variability for grain zinc and iron content in traditional and improved rice genotypes using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometer (ED-XRF) Mangla Parikh, AK Sarawgi, D Sanjeeva Rao and Bhawana Sharma Abstract Micronutrients are essential elements for plant and human development. The deficiency of these micronutrients hampering the crop productivity as well as deteriorating the quality of the produce. In the countries where staple foods consist of mainly cereals, the nutrient deficient foods causing human health hazard. The micronutrient content of grain can be elevated either by fortification or by agricultural strategies. The strategy involves enhance the micronutrients level through conventional plant breeding and biotechnology methods. The primary step in conventional breeding is to screen out the micronutrient-dense cultivars within natural existing germplasm. In rice natural variability exist for micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Vitamin A, etc.) content and bioavailability. Accordingly, the objective of the present study was to evaluate a panel of 192 diverse rice germplasm lines for iron and zinc content in brown and polished rice grain through energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometer (ED- XRF). Substantial variation was observed among screened genotypes. In brown rice iron and zinc content was ranged between 6.3 μg/g -24.5 μg/g and 15.4 μg/g -39.40 μg/g, respectively, whereas, polished rice showed iron and zinc content range from 0.1 μg/g -6.7 μg/g and 13.1 μg/g -32.6 μg/g, respectively indicating the nutritive richness of brown rice over the polished rice. The wild accessions showed the highest Fe and Zn content in grains before and after polishing. Thus, these micronutrient-rich wild species open up the possibilities for the exploitation as a donor in biofortification breeding programme and also in identification of genomic positions associated with iron and zinc contents in grains. Keywords: germplasm, rice, variability, zinc content, iron content, correlation Introduction There is a growing demand for agricultural products of higher nutritional quality, in order to minimize the occurrence of nutritional deficiency. This nutritional deficiency in micronutrients such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) have particularly affected, mainly in developing countries (Khush et al., 2012) [16] . It is estimated that more than 60% of the world population present Fe deficiency, and 30% or more present deficiency of Zn (Souza et al., 2013) [27] accounting for decreased work productivity, reduced mental capacity, stunting, blindness etc. (Baishya et al., 2015) [5] . To remedy this situation, it has been targeted the production of bio fortified foods, which is the increase in concentration of nutrients in the edible parts of plants, through breeding, in order to meet the human needs. Rice is one of the global staple foods being cultivated for 10,000 years and provides 70-80% or more daily calorie intake for 3 billion people, which is almost half of the world’s population (Ravindra Babu, 2013) [20] . The grain has large genetic variability in micronutrient concentration. Hence, rice was included in biofortification program (Graham et al., 1999) [12] . The biofortification programme has been identified as an efficient means to develop as well as transfer the genetically improved high micronutrient containing rice grains to the poor people who depend on rice for both energy and nutrients. The first pre-requisite for initiating a breeding programme to develop micronutrient rich genotypes, is to screen the available germplasm and to identify the source of the genetic variation for the target trait which can be used in crosses, genetic variation, molecular marker development and to understand the basic enhancement of micronutrient. Thus, micronutrient rich lines can be selected from the existing variation in germplasm of rice.