Genetic Engineering Techniques in Fruit Science
Abstract
Today, fruit science have well been established in world trade networks and sophisticated cultural and postharvest technologies that allow fruits to be enjoyed th roughout much of the year, instead of mere weeks per year like our ancestors experienced. Especially modern biotechnological methods including genetic engineering technologies have been taken part in breeding strategies of fruit crops. Several biotechnological methods can be applied to plant to have better ones in the process of fruit breeding. Genetic engineering is a powerful tool for plant improvement and has the potential to allow the integration of desirable characteristics into existing genomes. Trans formation technology developed a path to transfer important genes into plant genome for enhancing resistance against fungal, viral pathogens, other pests, drought, and salinity as well as silencing undesirable genes and improvement in nutrient acquisition. Different gene transfer techniques could be employed for fruit species. As well as direct and indirect transformation, modern genome editing methods recently have been used in plant science . In this review , we illustrated how to use these technologies in fruit science.
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Introduction
Horticulture is a branch of agriculture concerned with the cultivation and breeding of fruits, vegetables, grapevine and ornamentals. The horticultural market is gradually increasing because they have many benefits human health and the environment. Among the horticultural plants; fruits and vegetables are the primary source of essential minerals and vitamins. Fruits will continue to expand due to demand of better tasting, more varied and nutritious. Breeding of new varieties becomes day after day even more importance especially for growing population. Many different breeding strategies and techniques have been available for fruit crops. In this article, we will address general breeding strategies and biotechnological methods in fruit breeding, general principles and methodologies of genetic engineering techniques in fruit crops and discuss some issues related to the procedures and applications of these methodologies in practical breeding.
Conclusion
Many fruit and vegetable crops are generated by hybridization and selection, such as garden strawberry ( Fragaria X ananassa ), apple ( Malus domestica ), sweet orange ( Citrus sinensis ), tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), and squash ( Cucurbita maxima ). Another application of hybridization breeding is the generation of seedless horticultural crops, such as watermelon, by employing diploid and tetraploid parents. However, crop hybridization breeding has limitations that are difficult to overcome [141]. This requires enormous amounts of labor and land resources, although fast track breeding techniques and genetic engineering methods may accelerate breeding and selection processes. Recently , in addition to classical gene transfer technology, modern genetic engineering methods also have been started to apply for many plant species. It seems that the techniques illustrated in the present review will be more important with combination of classical plant breeding.
