Genetic Engineering of Vegetable Crops

Conventional plant breeding alone can no longer sustain the rising global demand for food. Genetic engineering technology makes it possible to develop new crop varieties with improved yield performance, specific quality attributes (external and internal in vegetable crops), resistance to diseases and insect pests, and environmental stresses. Genetic engineering technology for developing GM crops is complementary to genome editing and other breeding technologies. In addition to food requirements, transgenic crops have the possibility to carry edible vaccines and therapeutic proteins, to help combat human disease and malnutrition. This book reviews the importance and safety of transgenic vegetable crops and covers a wide variety of crops and different technologies. It includes: Genetic engineering in tomato, eggplant, peppers, amaranth, cauliflower, carrot, cucurbits, potato, tropical tubers and melons. Transgenic resistance to viral diseases. Embryogenic cell suspension culture. Genome editing and CRISPR/Cas9. Molecular techniques for biofortification. RNAi strategies for vegetable crop improvement. Designing futuristic vegetable crop varieties. This book is suitable for researchers in horticulture, plant science, and agricultural biotechnology as well as practitioners in vegetable breeding and seed production.

Dr Ashish Kaushal is Assistant Professor at the School of Agriculture, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. He obtained his PhD in Horticulture (Vegetable Science) from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. Dr Kaushal has over eleven years of combined research and teaching experience in the field of vegetable science. He spent two years working as a breeder at I&B Seeds Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, focusing on the genetic improvement of tomato, capsicum, and cucumber. His primary area of expertise lies in marker-assisted and genomic breeding for the enhancement of tomato crops, particularly for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as quality improvement.

Dr Saurabh Pandey is at the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Raipur, India

Dr K.V. Ravishankar is an accomplished plant molecular biotechnologist with more than 25 years of experience in horticultural genomics and molecular breeding. Since 2010, he has been serving as a Principal Scientist at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), where he has made substantial contributions to the development of molecular markers marker-assisted selection and genomic techniques in horticultural crops. His work has focused on enhancing tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as improving quality traits through advanced genomic technologies. Dr Ravishankar has authored over 200 scientific publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, edited books, book chapters, and conference papers. His expertise spans plant molecular biology, genetics, and genomics, with a particular emphasis on applying genomic and marker-assisted breeding strategies to improve the resilience of horticultural crops. In addition to his research activities, Dr Ravishankar is actively involved with the Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF) at ICAR-IIHR.

A.T. Sadashiva (PhD) is a renowned vegetable genetic researcher and breeder who served at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (ICAR-IIHR), Bengaluru. India, from 1987 to 2019. His main fields of research were related to molecular resistance breeding, breeding for processing in tomatoes, molecular breeding and improvement of vegetable crops for development of new and novel varieties/hybrids resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses and their promotion and popularization among vegetable growing farmers. At present he is serving as Director (R &D), Nethra Crop Sciences Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru. His scientific contribution includes the development of 22 varieties / F1 hybrids in tomato, brinjal, hot pepper & sweet pepper. He has published more than 100 research papers in peer-reviewed internationally refereed journals. He is fellow of Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences (IAHS), Indian Society of Vegetable Science (ISVS), Society for Promotion of Horticulture (SPH) and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS). He was PI for several national and international project related to vegetable improvement and NICRA project for developing climate resilient vegetable crops.

Pritam Kalia is Former Head, Professor and Emeritus Scientist, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. He has 37 years of experience in teaching, research and extension serving in various capacities. He has published over 110 research publications in national and international journals, and been involved with 11 books.