Eggplant (<i>Solanum melongena</i> L.)

Eggplant is an economically important vegetable crop in Asia and Africa, and although it is grown in Europe and the United States, it does not account for a significant percentage of agricultural production. It is susceptible to a number of pathogens and insects, with bacterial and fungal wilts being the most devastating. Attempts to improve resistance through introgression of traits from wild relatives have had limited success owing to sexual incompatibilities. Therefore, a crop improvement approach that combines both conventional breeding and biotechnological techniques would be beneficial. This chapter describes an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol for eggplant based on inoculation of seedling explants (cotyledons and hypocotyls) and leaves. We have used this protocol to recover transformants from two different types of eggplant, a Solanum melongena L. breeding line, and S. melongena L. var. Black Eggplant. The selectable marker gene used was neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) and the selection agent was kanamycin. In vitro grown transformants acclimated readily to greenhouse conditions.