Rapid Methods of Improvement in Brinjal

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) has great genetic wealth in its centre of origin, which is a foundation for crop improvement. So far, conventional breeding approaches were commonly used for improvement of yield, quality and resistance to insect pests and diseases, but the advent of biotechnological tools like embryo rescue, haploid induction, genetic transformation and molecular markers hastened the programmes in brinjal. The developments can be on understanding of evolutionary relationships, wide hybridization, genomic studies, gene editing, transgenics and doubled haploidy. The wealth of wild species can be used for introgression of resistance to Fusarium oxysporum from S. aethiopicum; Verticillium dahliae from S. linnaeanum, S. aethiopicum and S. incanum; draught from S. incanum; Verticillium wilt; and salt from Solanum sodomaeum. Male-sterile lines in cultivated S. melongena have been developed using the cytoplasm of S. aethiopicum, S. anguivi, S. kurzii, S. virginianum, S. violaceum and S. grandiflorum. Genetic transformation of Cre and Barnase gene for male sterility and Cry-1Ac gene for resistance to shoot and fruit borer are the other leads of improvement in brinjal. In the future, use of CRISPR/Cas for targeted modification of valuable traits can be exploited.