ADVANCED BREEDING HORIZONS FOR QUALITY AND NUTRITIONAL ENHANCEMENT IN SOLANACEOUS VEGETABLES: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Solanaceous vegetables, including tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), brinjal (Solanum melongena L.), chilli and pepper (Capsicum spp.) and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), constitute some of the most important vegetable crops worldwide owing to their nutritional, economic and health-promoting value. Traditionally, breeding programmes have focused primarily on increasing yield; however, growing consumer awareness regarding nutrition, taste, processing quality and health benefits has shifted breeding objectives toward quality improvement. Quality in vegetables encompasses a wide range of attributes, including morphological, organoleptic, nutritional, processing and storage characteristics. Important quality traits in solanaceous vegetables include fruit colour, firmness, total soluble solids, vitamin C, carotenoids, capsaicin, anthocyanins, protein content, shelf life and processing suitability. The genetic control of these traits is often complex, involving oligogenic, polygenic and maternal inheritance. Consequently, diverse breeding strategies have been employed to enhance quality attributes. Conventional approaches such as selection, hybridization, interspecific hybridization and mutation breeding have contributed significantly to the development of quality-improved cultivars. In addition, modern biotechnological tools including marker-assisted selection, QTL mapping, genomic selection, genetic engineering and genome editing have accelerated the identification, transfer, and manipulation of genes governing quality traits. The development of transgenic crops and the advent of CRISPR/Cas based genome editing technologies have opened new avenues for precise quality enhancement. Despite significant progress, challenges such as negative associations between yield and quality, environmental influences and low heritability of certain traits continue to hinder breeding efforts. Integration of conventional and molecular breeding approaches offers immense potential for developing nutritionally superior, consumer-preferred, and climate-resilient solanaceous vegetable cultivars capable of meeting future food and nutritional security demands.