‘Spicing up’ with Biotechnology: Trends and Developments in Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) Research

Black pepper, often referred to as “Black Gold” is primarily a culinary spice and is commonly used in traditional medicine. A large and diverse black pepper germplasm is available in and around the centre of origin, the tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats in India. As the full bearing age in black pepper is 6-7 years, the time and effort required to bring about a tangible trait improvement through conventional breeding is huge and it often takes decades for the development of a new variety. Needless to say, combining different traits like biotic and abiotic stress tolerance with industry-acceptable yield and quality traits, thus becomes a daunting task and a distant dream.  Biotechnological interventions in plant breeding have proven their potential to facilitate speedy crop improvement. The present review provides a fair account of biotechnology research that happened in black pepper in recent times. It underlines the scope of biotechnological tools as ways and means to produce high-yielding, superior-quality and stress-resilient varieties. This article focuses on the studies in gene expression and regulation in black pepper during different stages of crop and environmental stimuli. Molecular insights from such studies are expected to contribute considerably to increase crop resilience and productivity.