In Korea, chilli pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is a major vegetable crop. The pepper seed market is about $35 million and the whole sale market including processed products is equivalent to $2 billion, representing the second highest market value among crops, next to rice in Korea. Since the development of elite pepper variety is so competitive, vegetable seed companies usually run two important programs to keep the credibility of seed quality. One program is to deliver F1 hybrid seeds with a high purity test to farmers. The purity control of parents and F1 hybrid to avoid any contamination is conducted by DNA markers because pepper seeds are obtained using MS line. The other program is to identify the F1 variety from other varieties by analyzing the polymorphism so that the company and/or breeder protects the intellectual property from copying by others or from non-intentional contamination. We have developed about 900 EST-SSR sets from pepper and used to both programs. A total of 66 markers were selected to identify 32 F1 varieties and their own parents. Using these markers, the purity control of F1 hybrid rose up to the highest degree. We also found several SSR markers to distinguish F1 variety from other varieties and these markers could be useful to find the uniqueness of F1 cultivar.

Tocopherol belongs to the Vitamin E class of lipid soluble antioxidants that are essential for human nutrition. Tocopherols consist of a chromanol ring and a 15-carbon tail derived from homogentisate (HGA) and phytyl diphosphate, respectively. Condensation of HGA and phytyl diphosphate, the committed step in tocopherol biosynthesis, is catalyzed by HGA phytyltransferase (HPT). To increase tocopherol level in cucumber fruit, we performed Agrobacterium-mediated transformation with mdhpt gene, encoding HPT, isolated from apple (Malus domestica). We obtained two independent T0 cucumber plants from transforming 2,142 explants. Southern blot analysis of T0 showed that mdhpt was inserted in the genome. In order to test the tocopherol level, T1 cucumber fruits were screened by GC analysis. From 39 T1 fruits tested, some fruits showed 1.5-2 fold in α- and β-tocopherol content comparing to control. However, most of fruits contained lower levels of γ- and δ- tocopherol indicating a partition of metabolites in tocopherol biosynthesis pathway. We selected these T1 line and made a self-cross to obtain T2 seeds.

The virus infection to pepper crops has caused a heavy loss in productivity. In Korea, CMV (cucumber mosaic virus) is the most frequent occurrence virus followed by PepMoV (pepper mottle virus) and TSWV (tomato spotted wilt virus). The total occurrence of pepper infection from these viruses is over 80%. Therefore, if we could develop a pepper variety tolerant to these viruses, then we would protect a large portion of pepper cultivation and production from the virus damage. In order to develop tolerant peppers against these viruses, we have set up a transformation system of pepper using Agrobacterium with viral genes such as CP (coat protein) gene and HC-Pro (helper component-protease) gene. Genes used for constructing transgenic peppers are CMVP0-CP, CMVP1-CP, PepMoV-CP, CMV-CP::PepMoV-CP, PepMoV-HC-pro-C/Ri, TSWV-CP and so on. A large number of transgenic peppers transformed with those genes was tested for resistance to viral pathogens. We have found that CMVP0-CP, CMVP1-CP peppers were tolerant to a new CMVP1 pathogen and finally T3 peppers highly tolerant to CMVP1 pathogen were selected. The selected T3 peppers were tolerant under field test. In addition, transformed peppers highly tolerant to PepMoV were also selected. Here in Korea, none of the GM crops has ever been approved for safety testing yet. Although researchers in universities and national institutes have developed tens of GM crops during the last 10 years or so, only a few crops have been recently tested for the risk assessment. Unfortunately, it will take several years until any GM crops are on the Korean market. In other words, the present status of GM crop development in Korea is far behind worldwide levels in terms of research and development, which is not readily understood considering the fact that this country has at least 10 years history of GM crop biotechnology and 30 years of experience of tissue culture technology. What were the problems? Why has the crop biotechnology not been adopted sooner? Generally the tardiness shown by business in adopting GM crop biotechnology is caused by many factors: academical frontline, research funding, professional labor, systems for GM cultivation and risk assessment, understanding and help from the public, industrial success, professional leaders on GM crop development, and so on. Among these, the most critical aspect in Korean science community is the lack of industrial pipeline and interest from seed companies. In most cases, the driving force behind business comes from the private sector and we do not have private companies that are able to conduct the complicated biotechnology. A major question we are holding is what has to be done if we are to catch up in the race for the new green industry promoting people’s health, increasing food availability and protecting natural environment. Here I discuss about the successful events as to GM peppers and what the roadmap for commercialization would be.