Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is a major vegetable crop with great potential for genetic improvement owing to its large and mostly untapped genetic diversity. Eggplant breeding using the gene pool of cultivated species has produced significantly improved varieties. However, to overcome the current breeding challenges and for adaptation to climate change, a qualitative leap forward in eggplant breeding is necessary. The systematic utilization of genetic resources of cultivated eggplant and its wild relatives can greatly contribute to eggplant breeding. This review thus emphasizes the importance and characterization of genetic resources of eggplant under different heads including use and nutritional value, crop botany, origin, distribution and spread, taxonomy, breeding objectives, wild relatives, crossability, conservation of genetic resources, source of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, in vitro culture, mapping population, and identification of QTL, genetic transformation, and transgenic.