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Artemisinin production by plant hairy root cultures in gas- and liquid-phase bioreactors

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Abstract

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Alternative biotechnological protocol for large-scale artemisinin production was established. It featured enhanced growth and artemisinin production by cultivation of hairy roots in nutrient mist bioreactor (NMB) coupled with novel cultivation strategies.

Abstract

Artemisinin is used for the treatment of cerebral malaria. Presently, its main source is from seasonal plant Artemisia annua. This study featured investigation of growth and artemisinin production by A. annua hairy roots (induced by Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated genetic transformation of explants) in three bioreactor configurations—bubble column reactor, NMB and modified NMB particularly to establish their suitability for commercial production. It was observed that cultivation of hairy roots in a non-stirred bubble column reactor exhibited a biomass accumulation of 5.68 g/l only while batch cultivation in a custom-made NMB exhibited a higher biomass concentration of 8.52 g/l but relatively lower artemisinin accumulation of 0.22 mg/g was observed in this reactor. A mixture of submerged liquid-phase growth (for 5 days) followed by gas-phase cultivation in nutrient mist reactor operation strategy (for next 15 days) was adopted for hairy root cultivation in this investigation. Reasonably, high (23.02 g/l) final dry weight along with the artemisinin accumulation (1.12 mg/g, equivalent to 25.78 mg/l artemisinin) was obtained in this bioreactor, which is the highest reported artemisinin yield in the gas-phase NMB cultivation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thankfully acknowledge the supply of elite seed material from CIMAP Lucknow (India). The financial support by Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi (India) for the execution of the above project is gratefully acknowledged by one of the authors (Nivedita Patra).

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  1. Nivedita Patra

    Present address: School of Food Science and Environmental Health, College of Sciences and Health, Dublin Institute of Technology, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1, Ireland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, 110016, India

    Nivedita Patra & Ashok K. Srivastava

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  1. Nivedita Patra
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  2. Ashok K. Srivastava
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Correspondence to Ashok K. Srivastava.

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Communicated by P. P. Kumar.

Nivedita Patra is on leave from National Institute of Technology Rourkela.

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Patra, N., Srivastava, A.K. Artemisinin production by plant hairy root cultures in gas- and liquid-phase bioreactors. Plant Cell Rep 35, 143–153 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-015-1875-9

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