Chitosan enhances rosmarinic acid production in shoot cultures of Melissa officinalis L. through the induction of methyl jasmonate

Roya Razavizadeh,Ghazaleh Fooladi vanda,Leila Shabani

doi:10.1186/s40529-019-0274-x

Roya Razavizadeh, Ghazaleh Fooladi vanda + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-019-0274-x

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Journal: Botanical Studies	Publication Date: Oct 17, 2019
Citations: 30	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Payame Noor University, Shahrekord University

Abstract

BackgroundChitosan is a polycationic polysaccharide derived from chitin that has been recognized as an effective elicitor in the production of secondary metabolites of many medicinal plants. In this study, the effect of abiotic elicitor (chitosan) at various concentrations on rosmarinic acid (RA) and total phenolic accumulation in shoot cultures of lemon balm was investigated.ResultsTreatment of shoots by chitosan led to a noticeable induction of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), catalase (CAT), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) activities. Besides, the expression of PAL1, TAT and RAS genes and accumulation of RA and phenolic compound increased in chitosan-treated lemon balm shoots. Chitosan treatment also increased H2O2 accumulation and the expression of RBOH, an essential gene implicated in ROS production. Also, the up-regulation of the OPR gene by exogenous chitosan was associated with the induction of endogenous JA determined by GC-MASS.ConclusionThe present study showed that the induced production of rosmarinic acid by chitosan involves the trigger of defense-related enzymes, up-regulated expression of TAT and RAS genes, and stimulation of JA biosynthesis.

Highlights

Chitosan is a polycationic polysaccharide derived from chitin that has been recognized as an effective elicitor in the production of secondary metabolites of many medicinal plants
Taken together, the present results suggest that shoot cultures of lemon balm can benefit from chitosan elicitation for a better growth and better antioxidant properties
The results showed that chitosan elicitor only affected phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) gene expression at concentration of 150 mg/l, but increased TATgene expression at all concentrations of chitosan

Summary

Introduction

Chitosan is a polycationic polysaccharide derived from chitin that has been recognized as an effective elicitor in the production of secondary metabolites of many medicinal plants. The effect of abiotic elicitor (chitosan) at various concentrations on rosmarinic acid (RA) and total phenolic accumulation in shoot cultures of lemon balm was investigated. The responses elicited by chitosan include hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production, increased transcription/translation of plant defense genes and Fooladi vanda et al Bot Stud (2019) 60:26 phytoalexins (Loschke et al 1983; Hadwiger 1999). Lin et al (2005) showed that chitosan could stimulate a variety of defense responses, including production of H2O2 and increasing PAL activity. H2O2 can act as a signal to stimulate the transcription of genes related to the secondary metabolism production. Higher concentrations of ROS is destructive for the plant tissues and must be detoxified by antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and peroxidase (Mittler 2002; Cao and Jiang 2006)

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