In vitro cultures of heat-shock-treated explants (Left)
and transformed eggplant tissues (Right).
(Image credit: Crops Research Division)
Efforts to fast-track the development of improved eggplant varieties are underway at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), where researchers are harnessing gene-editing tools alongside doubled haploid (DH) technology to produce uniform and stable parent lines.
Funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), the project, “Utilization of Interdisciplinary Strategies and Plant Breeding Innovations for the Development of Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) Haploid and Doubled Haploid Lines,” integrates advanced breeding and digital technologies to enhance the efficiency of developing new cultivars.
DH technology is a plant breeding technique that enables the rapid production of genetically uniform plant lines in a single generation.
Through anther culture, immature pollen is cultured in the laboratory to form embryos or calluses, which develop into haploid plantlets. These are subsequently doubled to produce fully homozygous and stable lines.
In contrast, conventional eggplant breeding relies on repeated cycles of crossing, selfing, and selection, which typically requires six to eight years to produce stable and uniform hybrid lines—highlighting the advantage of DH-based approaches.
Led by Mr. John Albert M. Caraan from UPLB’s Institute of Plant Breeding–College of Agriculture and Food Science (IPB-CAFS), the project team identified a promising eggplant genotype suitable for DH lines production, which is a critical step in streamlining the development of improved breeding lines. They also developed an AI-assisted application to help determine optimal stages for laboratory culture, enhancing the success of embryo production. Also, the study identified genes active in male flower parts that could support future gene-editing strategies for haploid induction.
This innovative approach has the potential to significantly improve eggplant breeding in the Philippines by improving the efficiency, increasing precision, and strengthening the capacity of the public breeding programs.
These accomplishments were shared during the project review led by the Crops Research Division (CRD) Director Leilani D. Pelegrina; the Program Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Section Head Ms. Kristine Joy P. de Guzman; Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP) Manager for Vegetables Mr. Joel Norman R. Panganiban and the Technical Support Staff for the Vegetables, Legumes, and Rootcrops (VELERO) Cluster Ms. Elena May N. Cabarrubias; and S&T Consultant Dr. Ernelea P. Cao, who served as the technical evaluator.
- a) DOST-PCAARRD M&E team with the Eggplant Doubled Haploid (DH) Research Team during the field visit.
- b) Project Leader Mr. John Albert Caraan demonstrates the regenerated tissues of eggplant being maintained in the Tissue Culture Laboratory.
- c) GREAT scholar Mr. Mark Cyril Mercado presents the application developed for eggplant microspore characterization.
- d) Research Associate Mr. John Benedict Lamorin explains the process of establishing the anther cultures (Image credit: Crops Research Division).
Participants from DOST-PCAARRD and UPLB during the Pre-Terminal Review and Evaluation of the project “Utilization Interdisciplinary Strategies and Plant Breeding Innovations for the Development of Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) Haploid and Doubled Haploid Lines.” (Image credit: Crops Research Division)