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Development of micronutrient enriched staple foods is an important breeding goal in view of the extensive problem of 'hidden hunger' caused by micronutrient malnutrition. In the present study, kernel iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) concentrations were evaluated in a set of 31 diverse maize inbred lines in three trials at two locations -Delhi (Kharif 2007(Kharif & 2008 and Hyderabad (Rabi 2007-08). The ranges of kernel Fe and Zn concentrations were 13.95-39.31 mg/kg and 21.85-40.91 mg/kg, respectively, across the three environments. Pooled analysis revealed significant genotype × environment (G × E) interaction in the expression of both the micronutrient traits, although kernel Fe was found to be more sensitive to G × E as compared to kernel Zn. Seven inbred lines, viz.,

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Lack of appropriate donors, non-utilization of high throughput phenotyping and genotyping platforms with high genotype × environment interaction restrained identification of robust QTLs for grain protein content (GPC) in rice. In the present investigation a  BC 3 F 4 mapping population was developed using grain protein donor, ARC10075 and high-yielding cultivar Naveen and 190 lines were genotyped using 40 K Affimetrix custom SNP array with the objective to identify stable QTLs for protein content. Three of the identified QTLs, one for GPC ( qGPC1 . 1 ) and the other two for single grain protein content ( qSGPC 2. 1 , qSGPC7 . 1 ) were stable over the environments explaining  13%, 14% and 7.8% of the phenotypic variances, respectively. Stability and repeatability of these additive QTLs were supported by the synergistic additive effects of multi-environmental-QTLs. One epistatic-QTL, independent of  the  main effect QTL was detected over the environment for SGPC. A few functional genes governing seed storage protein were hypothesised inside these identified QTLs. The qGPC1 . 1 was validated by NIR Spectroscopy-based high throughput phenotyping in BC 3 F 5 population. Higher glutelin content was estimated in high-protein lines with the introgression of qGPC1 . 1 in telomeric region of short arm of chromosome 1. This was supported by the postulation of probable candidate gene inside this QTL region encoding glutelin family proteins.