Status of transgenics in Indian spices

Abstract

Biotechnology tools involving plant tissue culture and recombinant DNA technologies are powerful to complement conventional breeding and expedite spices improvement. The rate of progress in improvement of perennial spices is relatively slow due to their long pre-bearing period and other crop specific problems compared to other horticultural crops and studies are underway aimed at genetic improvement against pests, diseases and abiotic stresses. Hairy root transformation strategy is also being used for secondary metabolite production using seed spices, which are repertoire of medicinally important compounds. This review presents a consolidated account of contemporary information on biotechnological advances made in spice crops and future perspective in this direction.