Genetic transformation in Groundnut

Groundnut or peanut is commonly called the poor man's nut. It is an important oilseed and food crop. Over past few decades several varieties have been released for cultivation in different parts of India. However most of these are susceptible to stem rot. The stem rot pathogen (Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc.) has a very wide host range and the pathogen is causing heavy loss in groundnut crop. Stem rot disease causes a yield loss of 27% or more in India. So the present study outlines the application of genetic engineering and biotechnology to exploit the knowledge of plant defensin genes in applying Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation in order to obtain putative transgenics. Transformation of plants with the plant defensin gene has been shown to confer to the transgenic plants agronomically useful levels of resistance to fungal infection.