Are tissue cultures of Peganum harmala a useful model system for studying how to manipulate the formation of secondary metabolites?

Abstract

This article reviews our present knowledge on the formation of tryptophan derived secondary metabolites in tissue cultures of Peganum harmala. With the presence of β-carboline alkaloids and serotonin, P. harmala contains two rather simple, interrelated biosynthetic pathways. The long term disadvantage of low and unstable productivity of P. harmala suspension culture has recently been overcome by establishing highly productive hairy root cultures. The first β-carboline alkaloid biosynthetic enzymes, specific for the O-methylation of harmalol and harmol as well as for the oxidation of harmaline to harmine, have been detected in these cultures, and they should thus provide a suitable source for studying the yet unknown initial two enzymatic steps of β-carboline alkaloid biosynthesis. Seedlings of P. harmala have also been successfully transformed with constructed strains of Agrobacterium, as demonstrated by the overexpression of a tryptophan decarboxylase gene from Catharanthus roseus in cultures of P. harmala. In such transgenic cultures a large overproduction of serotonin was observed. The relative simplicity of these pathways and the rather easy handling of the cultures could make P. harmala a useful and attractive model system for studying the interaction, regulation and manipulation of secondary pathways in cultured cells.