www.sciencejournal.in Volume- 4 Issue- 4 (2015) ISSN: 2319–4731 (p); 2319–5037 (e) © 2015 DAMA International. All rights reserved. 116 TRANSGENIC RESEARCH OF VEGETABLE CROPS: AN UPDATE Abdul Majid Ansari 1* and Y. V. Singh 2 1 Junior Scientist-cum-Assistant Professor (Horticulture), Zonal Research Station (Birsa Agricultural University), Chianki, Palamau – 822102, Jharkhand, India 2 Professor and Head, Department of Vegetable Science, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar – 263145 (U. S. Nagar), Uttarakhand, India * Corresponding author E-mail: majid.gbp@gmail.com ABSTRACT Over the last two decades various important traits such as biotic stress resistance, product quality and storage life have been successfully engineered into crop plants including vegetable crops. Among the cultivated transgenic crop plants, herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait followed by Bacillus thuriengiensis (Bt) based insect resistance. Herbicide tolerant soybean and canola, and Bt maize and cotton constitute the four major genetically modified crops. The two commercialized transgenic vegetable crops are tomato with delayed fruit ripening and potato with insect and virus resistance. Although many more useful transgenic vegetables have been produced, the realization of their benefit at field level is slow. Molecular studies have shown that several novel traits can be introduced in vegetable crops. In recent years, considerable success has been achieved in introducing abiotic stress tolerance, quality traits and expression of various proteins and enzymes of pharmaceutical and industrial importance. KEYWORDS: Transgenic; vegetable crops; vitamins; antioxidant; phytosterols. INTRODUCTION In the countries like India where the population is predominantly vegetarian, vegetables form a vital constituent of the daily diet. China is the world's largest producer of vegetables followed by India (FAO, 2011 and NHB, 2011). Total production could be greatly improved if losses due to biotic and abiotic stresses, and lack of proper storage and processing facilities could be overcome. Consequently, improvements in vegetable production, quality and prevention of post-harvest losses are a common goal in all research and development programme focused on achieving the economic, social and environmental sustainability. Over the last two decades various important traits such as biotic stress resistance, product quality and storage life have been successfully engineered into crop plants. Since the first large-scale cultivation of transgenic insect-resistant crops in 1996, a record 17.3 million farmers, in 28 countries planted 170 million hectares (420 million acres) in 2012, a sustained increase of 6% or 10.3 million hectares (25 million acres) over 2011 (James, 2012). Among the cultivated transgenic crop plants, herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait followed by Bacillus thuriengiensis (Bt) based insect resistance. Herbicide tolerant soybean and canola, and Bt maize and cotton constitute the four major genetically modified crops (James, 2009). The two commercialized transgenic vegetable crops are tomato with delayed fruit ripening and potato with insect and virus resistance. In India Bt brinjal hybrids have been developed by a private seed company Mahyco. The field testing and safety trials are complete but their release for large scale cultivation is still awaited. Although many more useful transgenic vegetables have been produced, the realization of their benefit at field level is slow. Molecular studies have shown that several novel traits can be introduced in vegetable crops. In recent years considerable success has been achieved in introducing abiotic stress tolerance, quality traits and expression of various proteins and enzymes of pharmaceutical and industrial importance. These recent developments made in genetic engineering of vegetable crops have been described and discussed under the above mentioned topic. ABIOTIC STRESS TOLERANCE Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and extreme temperatures cause significant losses of crop productivity and quality. In abiotic stress prone areas, vegetable production is lower, which leads to malnutrition and associated health disorders in these regions. Development of crops with an inherent capacity to withstand abiotic stresses would help stabilize the vegetable production, and significantly contribute to food and nutritional security in developing countries and semi-arid tropical regions.