Research advance on calcium content in wheat grains

Increasing the mineral content is becoming the important research direction and major target for crops breeding in the world. Calcium is an essential mineral element for human health and plays a pivotal role in skeletogenesis and metabolism. It is estimated that about 3.5 billion people was suffered from calcium deficiencies. Calcium deficiency has become a major international problem harming human health. The staple food is an optimal and safe way to mineral supplement. Wheat, one of the main food crops in China and even in the world, is the main source of food for 35%–40% of global population, a main source for human’s calcium intake as well as an important crop of mineral element biofortification. Improving the calcium content in wheat grains through genetic improvement is considered to be the most economical, effective and sustainable measure to solve the calcium deficiency, which has aroused great concern from international scholars. This paper summarized the recent advances in the study of calcium content in wheat grains, mainly including the genetic variation, affecting factors, the relationship with related traits and regulation mechanism of calcium content in grain. Furthermore, we also put forward the direction of future research on calcium-fortified wheat, which provides solutions for accelerating the effective calcium supplementation through staple food, promoting the healthy and nutritious dietary pattern, ensuring the food security to meet the transition from “quantitative” to “qualitative” demands, improving people’s health, and reducing economic losses caused by calcium deficiency.