Quality improvement of major kimchi vegetables through plant breeding and biotechnology

Genetic improvement of vegetable quality has generally been slow and has not been properly monitored due to the complex relationship between the subjective nature of quality and the diversity of vegetables, plant species, ways of usage and parts consumed. Among three major kimchi vegetables, past efforts have achieved considerable advances in Chinese cabbage in such quality-related traits as texture, color, shape and the storage-ability of edible parts. Some important milestones in the genetic improvement of quality have been achieved for hot pepper. Crossbreeding of garlic is becoming a realistic task. Molecular marker-assisted selection for quantitative trait loci and antisense gene technique combined with transformation shows good potential as a complement to conventional plant breeding. In the exploitation of biotechnology for most of vegetable crops including major kimchi vegetables, the lack of information gleaned through classical genetics will be an additional limiting factor.