Transgenic research in fruit crops for disease resistance

Abstract

Fruits constitute an important part of the human diet. To meet the nutritional requirements of the increasing world population, a proportional increase in fruit production requires development of better varieties with higher yields under abiotic and biotic stress conditions. Many of the constraints faced by conventional methods of fruit breeding are overcome by use of the transgenic approach, which involves transfer of a target gene without altering the genetic makeup of a plant. Gene transfer through various methods can be done and it will be more useful where traditional breeding approach is not feasible. Tremendous progress has been made in different aspects of transgenic technology in the last few decades, that results in the development of commercial transgenic varieties in a few fruit crops. Now a days, major emphasis has been done on developing varieties resistant to diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses. So that, the majority of target genes have been taken from a heterologous source. Breakthroughs in genome editing and high-throughput sequencing techniques hold the key for further progress in transgenic research in fruit crops.