Enhancing the productivity of secondary metabolites via induced polyploidy: A review

Artificial polyploidy generally enhances the vigour of determinate plant parts and may be favourable where vegetative organs and biomass constitute the economic product. Giving suitable examples, it is shown that genomic multiplication can confer enhanced production and/or qualitative improvement in the biochemical profile of secondary metabolites. Allopolyploidisation can bring about natural complementation of biosynthetic pathways to harness the useful metabolites. A plea is made to utilise the induced polyploidy approach as a rapid means to attain enhanced production of secondary metabolites: pharmaceuticals, aroma chemicals, etc. The necessary prerequisites that may be needed for achieving genetic stability and reproductive success of the induced polyploids are outlined.