Hairy root culture: a promising alternative for enhancing the production of biologically active compounds

Abstract

Hairy roots are obtained from the infection caused by Agrobacterium rhizogenes, a gram negative bacterium and are known to produce different complex molecules. Various biochemical pathways and physiological aspects in plants can be understood by means of hairy roots. Being genetically and biosynthetically stable as well as resultant high biomass accumulation and productivity in short period of time, these roots are great alternatives to conventional methods for the production of pharmacologically important compounds. Various biotechnological approaches i.e. culture medium components and their concentration, culture conditions, elicitation etc. are used and optimized to enhance overall yield. To meet up the increasing demand, production on industrial scale has been considered to be an important where concept of bioreactors is involved. This review presents basic idea of development of hairy roots, requirement of the optimum culture conditions and use of bioreactors to increase yield of the bioactive compounds.