ABSTRACT
Recent advances in plant biotechnology have revealed many novel and practical applications for genetic modification of various crop plants. Such applications include mediating resistance to various pathogens, herbicide resistance, tolerance to various stresses (drought, flooding, salt, frost, or high temperature), improved nutritional quality, high yield, longer storage life, optimized food processing, and molecular pharming/farming for therapeutic purposes (Slater et al. 2003). To improve oil quality, biotechnologists have reported genetically engineering oilseeds using molecular breeding technology, but such reports have focused largely on soybean, rapeseed, cottonseed, and sunflower seed (Chapman 2001; Damude and Kinney 2007, 2008; Drexler et al. 2003; Dyer and Mullen 2005, 2008; Murphy 2006; Napier et al. 2006; Napier 2007; Opsahl-Ferstad 2003; Scarth and Tang 2006; Stoll et al. 2005). In contrast, there is little information concerning biotechnological approaches to genetically improve sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) oilseeds.
