DISCUSSION
Screening for resistance for transgenic plants is generally conducted in field conditions which have limitations like;
suitable environmental conditions, inhibitions from other pathogens, longer duration to observe results [12]. It also
requires approval from various governing committees like RCGM and GEAC to conduct experiments in field condition.
The detached leaf bioassay overcomes the limitations of time and space, provides a compact environment, relatively
fast and the most reliable assessment for early screening of transgenic plants against Alternariasolani. Selection of
Leaves should be devoid of mites and other pathogens, which might obstruct the accurate results in detached leaf
bioassay. Sterilization of leaf samples reduced the saprophytic populations and similarly [13]. Antimicrobial peptide
genes have high antimicrobial activity against various pathogenic fungi and are the potential genes to be transformed
into plants for transgenic development [14] [2]. In the present study, transgenic plant 10-7 showed higher resistant and
moderate resistant was observed in 7-2, 13-19 and 1-3 when compared to the other lines. Wu et al[15] applied Ace –
AMP1 protein on the leaves of tomato and infected with Alternariasolani which showed strong resistance towards the
pathogen.In this experiment it was found that older leaves 90 days were more resistant towards the disease when
compared to younger leaves. The same was observed with [16] that the chickpea older leaves were more resistant than
the younger leaves. In contrast Browne et al[17] reported that detached leaf 3 (youngest leaf) was more resistant than
leaves 1 and 2. Selecting leaf of similar age and position on the plant is an important factor in detached leaf bioassay
for consistent results [18]. Ninety day old leaf is better in performing detached leaf bioassay