Department of Vegetable Crops, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana - 141 004, India.
The review emphasises the role of biotechnological tools like micropropagation, molecular markers, anther culture, cybridization, induced male sterility and transgenics in the production of specific parental lines or hybrids in vegetables. Micropropagation can be used for maintenance of male sterile lines either controlled by recessive genes (tomato, muskmelon, chilli) or dominant genes (cabbage); maintenance of self-incompatible lines in cole crops and maintenance of hybrids as such through tissue culture. Molecular markers can be used for assessment of genetic diversity, construction of linkage maps, varietal identificaton and marker assisted selection for traits of interest. Anther culture techniques can be utilized for development of self-incompatible lines in cole vegetables and also to develop inbred lines in cross-pollinated vegetables. Cybridization is used for single step transfer of cytoplasmic male sterility from potato to tomato by protoplast fusion and generation of noval cybrids in tomato. Induction of male sterility by the use of ‘Barnase-Barstar’ systerm of hybrids seed production, is universally applicable for economic hybrid seed production especially in those vegetable crops where male sterility is not available (e.g. okra). Genetic transformation techniques can be used for trait specific transgenic parental lines for hybrids.
