Biotechnology of eggplant

Eggplant and its cultivated or wild relatives, cover a wide range of Solanum species (subgenu L. septostemonum) originating from Asia and Africa. The most widely cultivated species is S. melongena L. Other species are cultivated in Africa such as the scarlet eggplant (S. aethiopicum L.) and the gboma eggplant (S. macrocarpon L.). Eggplant (S. melongena L.), with a world production of around 9 million metric tons, is an economically very important solanaceous crop in Asia and the Mediterranean basin. A list of transformation methods, genes of interest and targeted agricultural traits is given in Table 10.2.

Table 10.2 A summary of gene transfer and corresponding agricultural traits into pepper and eggplant
 
Plant species
Transformation methods
Gene utilised
Agricultural traits
Inheritance
Field or greenhouse
test
Reference
 
 
Capsicum annuum
A.t.
CMV coat
protein
CMV resistance
R1
51
 
 
A.t.
CMV satellite RNA
CMV resistance
R1
59
 
 
A.t.
Bar gene
Herbicide resistance
R1
60
 
 
Solanum melongena
A.t.
CryIIIB
Insect resistance
R1
No
71
 
 
A.t.
Synthetic
CryIIIA
Insect resistance
R1
F
72
 
 
A.t.
Mutagenised CryIIIB
Insect resistance
R2
F
75, 76
 
 
A.t.
Synthetic
CryIAb
Insect resistance
Not Tested
No
77
 
 
A.t.
Cysteine
protease inhibitor
Insect resistance
No
70
 
 
A.t.
IaaM from Pseudomonas synringae
Parthenocarpy
R2 and more
G
79, 80