Abstract
Hairy root cultures of Rauwolfia serpentina induced by Agrobacterium rhizogenes have been investigated extensively for the production of terpenoid indole alkaloids. Various biotechnological developments, such as scaling up in bioreactors, pathway engineering etc., have been explored to improve their metabolite production potential. These hairy roots are competent for regenerating into complete plants and show survival and unaltered biosynthetic potential during storage at low temperature. This review provides a comprehensive account of the hairy root cultures of R. serpentina, their biosynthetic potential and various biotechnological methods used to explore the production of pharmaceutically important terpenoid indole alkaloids. The review also indicates how biotechnological endeavors might improve the future progress of research for production of alkaloids using Rauwolfia hairy roots.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Director, CIMAP (CSIR) for providing the necessary facilities to carry out the work. Post Doctoral Fellowship provided by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India to SM. The kind support rendered by Dr.A K Kukreja to carry out this work is duly acknowledged.
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Mehrotra, S., Goel, M.K., Srivastava, V. et al. Hairy root biotechnology of Rauwolfia serpentina: a potent approach for the production of pharmaceutically important terpenoid indole alkaloids. Biotechnol Lett 37, 253–263 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-014-1695-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-014-1695-y