Response of plant tissue culture to a high shear environment

Abstract

Plant cell suspension cultures of Nicotiana tabacum were tested in a Couette-type shearing device to determine the effect of shear rate on culture viability, cell lysis, and the accumulation of secondary metabolites (phenolics). The effects of increasing shear and variable culture age were both investigated. Increasing shear caused an increase in cell death, lysis, and phenolics secretion. In testing suspension cultures of various ages, it was found that those cultures in the latter stages of exponential growth and early in the stationary phase were more susceptible to shear damage than cultures in the lag phase, early exponential phase, or later stationary phase. An increase in extracellular phenolics as a response to shear was more apparent with older cultures. The amount of phenolics secreted from the cells was directly related to the intensity of shear. This may have been due to an increase in cell permeabilization with higher shear rates.