Spices Biotechnology: Opportunities and Challenges

Preview this chapter:

Spices Biotechnology: Opportunities and Challenges, Page 1 of 1

< Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/9789815039566/chapter-1-1.gif

<div&gt;Spices have been used since ancient times as a flavoring agent as well as an&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;important medicinal resource. Biotechnology, using strategies such as cell, organ, and&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;tissue culture, genetic engineering, and the application of nucleic acid markers can&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;escalate the productivity and efficiency of spices. Cell, tissue, and plant organ culture&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;have enabled the rapid and mass reproduction of many disease-free spice plants, which&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;are uniform genetically and qualitatively. In recent years, cell and limb suspension&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;(stem and hair roots) have been considered for producing secondary metabolites and&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;for studying the biosynthesis pathway of metabolites. Plant genetic engineering has&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;helped in the genetic identification and manipulation of enzymes of the biosynthetic&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;pathway of secondary metabolites. Gene transformation has improved the production&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;of secondary metabolites that have yield limitations. Molecular markers are powerful&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;tools for accurately identifying important medicinal species, examining genetic&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;diversity, classifying hereditary reserves, and determining their genetic map&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;irrespective of their age, physiological, and environmental conditions. Next-generation&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;sequencing (NGS) methods like restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq)</div&gt;<div&gt;have revolutionized the study of genetic diversity, and the enzymes and genes implied&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;in the secondary metabolites biosynthetic pathways can be studded by transcriptome&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;profiling (RNA-seq). The ground-breaking genome editing techniques like Clustered&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), sequence-specific&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;nucleases of transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and zinc-finger&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;nucleases could help in customizing the plants according to the requirements. This&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;article provides an overview of various biotechnology solutions that increase the&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;quality and productivity of spice plants.</div&gt;