Abstract
The enhancement of plant secondary metabolite production in cell suspension cultures through biotic or abiotic elicitation has become a potential biotechnological approach for commercialization or large-scale production of bioactive compounds. Gymnema sylvestre R.Br. is an important medicinal plant, rich in a group of oleanane triterpenoid saponins called gymnemic acid, well known for its anti-diabetic activity. Two endophytic fungal strains were isolated from the leaves of G. sylvestre and identified as Polyancora globosa and Xylaria sp. based on the PCR amplification and internal transcribed spacer (ITS 1-5.8S-ITS 2) sequencing of 18S rRNA gene. The process of elicitation of cell suspension cultures of G. sylvestre with dried powder of fungal mycelia (DPFM) and extracellular culture filtrate (ECF) of endophytic fungi consistently enhanced the accumulation of gymnemic acid and the DPFM was proved to be an effective elicitor when compared to the ECF. The DPFM elicited the gymnemic acid content in the range of 2.57–10.45-fold, while the ECF elicited the gymnemic acid content in the range of 2.39–7.8-fold. P. globosa, a novel and a rare endophytic fungal strain, has shown a great influence on the production of gymnemic acid. Cell suspension cultures elicited with DPFM of P. globosa produced higher amount of gymnemic acid content (124.23 mg/g dried cell weight) compared to the cultures elicited with DPFM of Xylaria sp. (102.24 mg/g DCW). But the cultures treated with consortium of DPFM of both fungi showed great influence on the production of gymnemic acid (139.98 mg/g DCW) than the cultures treated with DPFM alone. Similarly, cultures treated with consortium of ECF of both fungi produced more gymnemic acid content (94.86 mg/g DCW) compared with cultures treated with ECF of Xylaria sp. (77.93 mg/g DCW) and ECF of P. globosa (78.65 mg/g DCW) alone.
Highlights
Plant cell and tissue cultures are potential and alternative sources for the large-scale production of desired bioactive compounds which cannot be synthesized chemically, due to their complex structures
The process of elicitation of cell suspension cultures of G. sylvestre with dried powder of fungal mycelia (DPFM) and extracellular culture filtrate (ECF) of endophytic fungi consistently enhanced the accumulation of gymnemic acid and the DPFM was proved to be an effective elicitor when compared to the ECF
We report the elicitation of gymnemic acid through cell suspension cultures of leaves of G. sylvestre using two different endophytic fungi isolated from the same plant
Summary
Plant cell and tissue cultures are potential and alternative sources for the large-scale production of desired bioactive compounds which cannot be synthesized chemically, due to their complex structures For this purpose, callus and cell suspension cultures are more preferred, but their yield does not match up to the growing demands. Endophytic fungi are the intriguing fungal species which live inside the healthy plant tissues without causing any apparent symptoms of disease In this symbiotic association, many benefits from the endophytic fungi have been transferred to the host plant, which includes production of natural active compounds (Kusari and Spiteller 2011 ), production of growth promoters, tolerance to drought, secretion of defensive chemicals for protection against pathogens, pests and diseases, biochemical modifications in their host plant (Aly et al 2011; Wani et al 2015), enhancers or elicitors of bioactive compounds through tissue culture systems including callus and cell suspension cultures (Dass and Ramawat 2009; Kiran et al 2011)
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