Secondary Metabolites and Biotechnology of Key Lime (Сitrus Aurantiifolia (Christm.) Swingle)

Citrus aurantiifolia (key lime or mexican lime) belongs to the family Rutaceae, members of which are highly valued worldwide for their flavor, valuable nutrients, and bioactive compounds (BACs). Due to the biological activity of its secondary metabolites (SMs), lime and its components are used in tra-ditional medicine for treating joint diseases, headaches, coughs, cardiovascular disorders, and hemorrhoids. The SMs of lime include alkaloids, carote-noids, coumarins, essential oils (including isoprenoids), and phenolic compounds (such as flavones, flavonoids, and phenolic acids). The juice, ex-tracts, essential oil, and SMs of lime are widely used in the food and cosmetic industries, medicine, agriculture, and bionanotechnology as flavor en-hancers, fragrances, preservatives, antioxidants, antimicrobial agents, herbicides, insecticides, and substances for metal recovery from precursor compounds during nanoparticle synthesis. Lime extracts have been noted for their ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cells and even induce apopto-sis. The propagation of key lime using traditional methods is often inefficient and time-consuming, which hinders the rapid and large-scale production of BACs. The application of biotechnological methods allows for the optimization of the propagation process, the production of virus-free plant material, and the enhancement of SM synthesis. Biotechnological methods of lime propagation include the creation of «artificial seeds», somatic embryogene-sis, and clonal micropropagation. The accumulation of target metabolites can be induced by modifying the composition of the nutrient medium, specif-ically through the application of phytohormones and the addition of NaCl at various concentrations. A promising approach in genetic engineering is Agro-bacterium-mediated transformation. Although lime exhibits low susceptibility to infection by Agrobacterium strains, significant improvements in trans-formation efficiency have been achieved through protocol modifications and the use of antioxidants. Electrofusion of protoplasts is an effective method for obtaining interspecific and intergeneric lime hybrids. Thus, hybrids of Sudachi and Lime as well as Lime and Feroniella have been successfully pro-duced. Lime extracts, due to the presence of stabilizing and modifying substances, are actively used in the green synthesis of nanoparticles. Nanopar-ticles of silver, gold, zinc oxide, copper oxide, and tin oxide have been synthesized from extracts of various plant parts.