The Bt brinjal event EE-1 has been developed to be tolerant to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB), one of the major pests which attacks the brinjal crop throughout its life cycle.

For this purpose brinjal plants were modified through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation using plasmid pMON10518. It contains:

• The cry1Ac gene derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to produce an insecticidal protein. The cry1Ac gene (CS-cry1Ac-BACTU) is driven by a viral promoter, the enhanced CaMV35S promoter (P-e35S-CaMV)
• The nptII gene (CS-nptII-ECOLX) for an antibiotic resistance marker, neomycin phosphotransferase controlled by the CaMV35S promoter (P-35S-CaMV).
• The aad gene (CS-aadA-ECOLX) for another marker O -aminoglycoside adenyl trans ferase, under the control of a bacterial regulatory sequence, the Tn7 promoter, which is not active in plants.

Molecular analysis indicated that an insertion occured at a single genomic locus.

Sources: (1)Patent EP1989313 A2; (2)Ballari et al. (2013) Detection and identification of genetically modified EE-1 brinjal (Solanum melongena) by single, multiplex and SYBR real-time PCR, J Sci Food Agri, 93, 340-347; (3)Report of the Expert Committee (EC-II) on Bt Brinjal Event EE-1; submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi