Metabolic engineering for salt tolerance in tomato

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is a widely grown crop and is focus of large agricultural industry. It is grown in almost every corner of the world. Such areas generally provide optimal climates for tomato production. However, higher levels of salinity frequently encountered in the soil or in the irrigation water poses serious constraints to tomato productivity. Plant genetic transformation technology provides a rapid method to improve salt tolerance in crop plants. In view of this, it was proposed to develop transgenic tomato plants by introducing P5CS gene to maintain the current level of productivity in saline soils or to increase the overall production. Based on the results from various experiments conducted, an efficient and reproducible protocol for transformation of tomato (var. Dhanashri) was optimized. This book provides a useful transformation and regeneration protocol that facilitates the transferred genes to be inherited stably and in predictable manner. The work presented in this book is a valuable source of information for the students and research workers in the field of life sciences.