Biotechnological Approaches in Improvement of Spices: A Review

Abstract

Biotechnological approaches like micropropagation, somaclonal variation, in vitro conservation, synseed technology, protoplast fusion, production of fl avour and colouring components and development of novel transgenics have great potential in conservation, utilization and increasing the production of spices. Effi cient micropropagation systems are available for many spices which are being used for propagation, conservation, safe movement and exchange of germplasm, crop improvement through somaclonal variation and transgenic pathways. Studies on the production of metabolites, fl avour and colouring compounds using immobilized and transformed cell cultures are being attempted. Molecular markers and maps are being generated for crop profi ling, fi ngerprinting, identifi cation of duplicates, and markerassisted breeding. Transcriptome sequencing is becoming an important tool for identifi cation, isolation and cloning of useful genes. Bio-technological approaches involving microbials (antogonists/hyper parasites and PGPRs) with broad spectrum of disease suppression and growth promotion have been found effective in crop health management in spice crops.