Current Trends In Fenugreek Bıotechnology And Approaches Towards Its Improvement

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) plant is cultivated throughout the world as medicinal, food, condiment, dye, and forage. First biotechnological study was carried out in 1945 that reported the effects of diniconazole, a triazole-type fungicide on cell suspension cultures of fenugreek. It was followed by many studies using cell suspension and callus culture emphasising increased production of protein and economically important metabolites like trigonelline, sapogenin, Isoflavonoid pterocarpans, diosgenin, gitogenin and tigogenin from callus, leaves, stems and roots explants. Plant tissue culture studies have emphasied use of callus, cotyloden, hypocotyls and shoot tip epicotyls, apical meristem, cotyledon node and cotyledon leaf explants. Most of the researchers agree difficulty in in vitro rooting. Protoplast studies have also been reported using leaf mesophyll and root apices. Leaf mesophyl protoplasts could be converted to leafy shoots whereas, root apices protoplasts gave cell colonies or roots only. Genetic transformation studies using Agrobacterium rhizogenes and A. tumefaciens are at initial stages and the genes used in the studies only present transformation with either marker or reporter genes. There is a single report on molecular charachterisation of fenugreek from India using 10 RAPD and ISSR primers that revealed interspecific polymorphysm. A review of all this suggests that plant biotechnology of fenugreek is at initial stages of development and there is lot to do for the improvement and breeding of fenugreek