Abstract
Suspension cultures of Catharanthus roseus were used to evaluate ultraviolet-B (UV-B) treatment as an abiotic elicitor of secondary metabolites. A dispersed cell suspension culture from C. roseus leaves in late exponential phase and stationary phase were irradiated with UV-B for 5 min. The stationary phase cultures were more responsive to UV-B irradiation than late exponential phase cultures. Catharanthine and vindoline increased 3-fold and 12-fold, respectively, on treatment with a 5-min UV-B irradiation.
Highlights
The strong and rapid stimulatory effect of biotic and abiotic elicitors on plant secondary metabolite synthesis attracts considerable attention and is under intense investigation in many laboratories including ours [1,2,3]
The cell suspension cultures in C. roseus have been employed for the production of ajmalicine, catharanthine, serpentine and many other pharmaceutically important products [11]
One major disadvantage with the use of cell suspension cultures in C. roseus is the inability of the cultures to produce vindoline and vinblastine and vincristine [12,13]
Summary
The strong and rapid stimulatory effect of biotic and abiotic elicitors on plant secondary metabolite synthesis attracts considerable attention and is under intense investigation in many laboratories including ours [1,2,3]. Chemical treatments such as osmotic shock by mannitol [4], salt stress [5], rare earth elements [5,6] and bioregulators [7,8] have been reported to increase alkaloid production in C. roseus cell cultures; these increases are cell-line dependent and this greatly limits their utilization [5,9]. It was found that UV-B induced accumulation of catharanthine and vindoline without affecting cell growth and viability
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