Alkaloids production and antioxidant properties in Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. shoots and study of alkaloid biosynthesis-related gene expression levels in response to methyl jasmonate and putrescine treatments as eco-friendly elicitors

Elham Khataee | Farah Karimi | Khadijeh Razavi

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URL :   http://research.shahed.ac.ir/WSR/WebPages/Report/PaperView.aspx?PaperID=106423
Date :  2019/04/01
Publish in :    Biologia Futura- Previous Title: Acta Biologica Hungarica
DOI :  https://doi.org/10.1556/019.70.2019.05
Link :  https://akademiai.com/doi/abs/10.1556/019.70.2019.05
Keywords :antioxidant, Catharanthus, roseus, biosynthesis, related, methyl, treatments, elicitors

Abstract :

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This study aimed to determine the effects of methyl jasmonate combined with putrescine as eco-friendly elicitors on secondary metabolism and genes expression of alkaloid biosynthetic pathway in C. roseus in vitro propagated shoots. Methods: The expression of Mitogen-activated protein kinase3 (MAPK3) and the transcription factor, octadecanoid-responsive Catharanthus AP2-domain3 (ORCA3), upstream of plant alkaloids’ biosynthetic pathway and of key genes in the pathway (CrPRX1, STR, DAT, GS) are investigated as well using qRT-PCR. Antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, CAT) activities and non-enzymatic antioxidants (Phenolics, flavonoids and carotenoids) contents have studied to determine the stress levels of the plant by spectrophotometer. Results: Results showed increased contents of non-enzymatic antioxidants after 4-8 h and enzymatic antioxidants activities after 24 h. Alkaloids contents increased mostly after one week. The investigated signaling genes upregulated after 8 h and biosynthetic genes after 24 h of treatments. Combined treatments had more positive effects on gene expression levels, antioxidant responses and secondary metabolite production than methyl jasmonate individually. Discussion: Increased effects of combined elicitor on genes expression may be due to cross talks between their signaling pathways. Combination of methyl jasmonate and putrescine seems can be used as an eco-friendly elicitor for enhancing the production of economically important alkaloids in C. roseus.