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In vitro culture using nicotine and d-tubocurarine and in silico analysis depict the presence of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

  • Plant Physiology
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Abstract 

Acetylcholine, an established neurotransmitter, is now known to regulate several plant processes. The researchers of this current study have already reported that ACh promotes root and inhibits shoot and callus formation, demonstrating its role in differentiation and morphogenesis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) in vitro leaf cultures (Bamel et al. Life Sci 80:2393–2396, 2007; Plant Signal Behav 11:6, 2016). To explore the presence of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in plant cells, the effects of nicotine and tubocurarine, the agonists and antagonists for this receptor, were also assessed and it was found that nicotine mimicked the action of acetylcholine (ACh) by promoting root formation (Bamel et al. Int Immunopharmacol 29: 231–234, 2015). In the present study, nicotine simulated ACh and reduced the shoot and callus formation. d-Tubocurarine showed antagonistic effect on shoot formation. These investigations demonstrate indirect evidence for the presence of nAChR. To confirm the existence of receptor for ACh, in silico analysis was also carried out which confirmed the possibility of LOC 101,263,815 of S. lycopersicum to encode for neuronal acetylcholine receptor subunit alpha-5.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this manuscript; the raw data will be made available from the corresponding author, if required.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India, for providing Junior Research Fellowship to KB.

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  1. Department of Botany, Shivaji College, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110027, India

    Kiran Bamel & Nupur Mondal

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  1. Kiran Bamel
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  2. Nupur Mondal
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Contributions

The material preparation, data collection, and result analysis of in vitro work were performed by KB. The in silico study was conceived and designed by KB. The in silico work was performed by NM. KB and NM wrote, read, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kiran Bamel.

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Bamel, K., Mondal, N. In vitro culture using nicotine and d-tubocurarine and in silico analysis depict the presence of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Plant 59, 39–48 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-022-10324-2

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