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 |
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Capsicum annuum |
A.t. |
CMV coat protein |
CMV resistance |
R1 |
51 |
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A.t. |
CMV satellite RNA |
CMV resistance |
R1 |
59 |
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A.t. |
Bar gene |
Herbicide resistance |
R1 |
60 |
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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 |
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A.t. |
Synthetic CryIAb |
Insect resistance |
Not Tested |
No |
77 |
|||
A.t. |
Cysteine protease inhibitor |
Insect resistance |
No |
70 |
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A.t. |
IaaM from Pseudomonas synringae |
Parthenocarpy |
R2 and more |
G |
79, 80 |