Transcriptomic Resources of Cardamom and Their Implications

Cardamom, the ‘queen of spices’ has economic potential because of its domestic and international demand. There is a considerable difference in the productivity between the lead producer Guatemala and India. Also, various biotic factors, such as insects, disease-causing fungi, bacteria, virus and nematodes, and abiotic factors, such as drought, limit the production, productivity and quality of the cardamom. The real value of cardamom lies in the phytochemical compounds present in it. The metabolic pathways governing their production are unexplored. The knowledge gaps in these areas have to be addressed so as to achieve the maximum yield with desired quality produce. Transcriptomics, a tool of great importance which may serve as panacea for these shortcomings if it is combined with the other ‘omics’ tools such as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. In this chapter, we have comprehended the constraints in cardamom production and the solutions brought out through transcriptomics approaches.