PLSCI 4070

Nutritional Quality Improvement of Food Crops

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The nutrients in human diets are ultimately derived from plants. However, the edible portions of the world's most extensively grown staple food crops are poor sources for numerous micronutrients and health-promoting compounds that are essential for sustaining and enhancing life. The improvement of crop nutritional quality through breeding, termed biofortification, is a sustainable strategy being used to address micronutrient deficiences worldwide. This course covers recent progress on crop nutritional quality trait improvement. The lectures will focus on vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, phytonutrients, essential amino acids, and fatty acids in the context of better human nutrition and health.

Prerequisites REF-FA25/Corequisites REF-FA25 one majors-level biology course or permission of instructors. Corequisites: None.

Exploratory Studies (CU-SBY)

Last 4 terms offered (None)

Outcomes REF-FA25

• Articulate why there is a compelling need for improving the nutritional quality of food crops.
• Explain the approaches and mechanisms used for nutritional quality improvement.
• Describe the status of development and commercialization of nutrient-dense crops.
• Demonstrate improvement in the ability to write and speak to scientific audiences.

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