Abstract
In addition to causing oxidative stress, NaCl can act as an inexpensive elicitor to trigger the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites like flavonoids, an important group of therapeutic compounds found in the Haplophyllum genus. Haplophyllum virgatum is an Iranian endemic plant from this genus. So far, the elicitation effect of NaCl on this plant has not been investigated. Cell suspension culture, along with elicitor application, is an appropriate technique to obtain large amounts of plant-produced compounds. Here, the oxidative stress responses were investigated in suspension cells of H. virgatum var. virgatum in the presence of NaCl (0, 100, 150, and 200 mM) at various time courses (0, 8, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 168 h after treatments). Besides, the expression levels of two critical enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids (chalcone synthase and chalcone isomerase) and the R2R3-MYB transcription factor were measured. The accumulation of rutin (the main flavonoid in Rutaceae) in the NaCl-treated cells was also evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The obtained results have demonstrated significant enhancements in the oxidative stress indices (malondialdehyde, proline, hydrogen peroxide, and enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants) and the rutin contents in the studied suspension cells. In addition, positive correlations were deduced between the expression levels of mentioned genes and the rutin contents. These findings highlight the possible regulatory role of R2R3-MYB transcription factors in flavonoid biosynthesis in H. virgatum and the role of these secondary metabolites in responses to NaCl. The obtained results also suggest that NaCl is a suitable elicitor for flavonoid production in the cell suspension culture of the plant.
Key message
NaCl elicited the accumulation of flavonoids in suspension cells of H. virgatum, probably via upregulation of R2R3-MYB, which then upregulated flavonoid biosynthetic genes, CHS and CHI.
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Change history
07 February 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-023-02463-0
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- CAT:
-
Catalase
- CHI:
-
Chalcone isomerase
- CHS:
-
Chalcone synthase
- cDNA:
-
Complementary DNA
- CT:
-
Cycle threshold
- GAE:
-
Gallic acid
- HCA:
-
Hierarchical clustering analysis
- HPLC:
-
High-performance liquid chromatography
- H2O2 :
-
Hydrogen peroxide
- IAA:
-
Indol-3-acetic acid
- MDA:
-
Malondialdehyde
- MS:
-
Murashige and Skoog
- NAA:
-
1-naphthaleneacetic acid
- NO:
-
Nitric oxide
- NBT:
-
Nitro blue tetrazolium
- POD:
-
Peroxidase
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- QE:
-
Quercetin
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- RT-qPCR:
-
Real-time quantitative PCR
- NaCl:
-
Sodium chloride
- SOD:
-
Superoxide dismutase
- TBA:
-
Thiobarbituric acid
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The authors thank Shahed University (Iran) for its support.
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The necessary facilities for doing this work have been provided by Shahed University and this study was done without receiving any other funding.
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FK, AS, and KR have supervised the project. MA and FK have designed the experiments. MA has performed the experiments, analyzed the data, and written the primary manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript for publication.
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Communicated by Amita Bhattacharya.
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Abedi, M., Karimi, F., Saboora, A. et al. NaCl-induced flavonoid biosynthesis and oxidative stress responses in suspension cells of Haplophyllum virgatum var. virgatum. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 154, 311–324 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-023-02455-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-023-02455-0