Induction of Anthocyanin Synthesis in Relation to Embryogenesis in a Carrot Suspension Culture — a Model System for the Study of Expression and Repression of Secondary Metabolism

Abstract

Secondary metabolism in intact plants is expressed at specifically differentiated organs and tissues. On the other hand, in cultured cells, most secondary metabolism activities are repressed, giving rise to difficulty when production of useful secondary metabolites is attempted using cultured plant cells. The reason why secondary metabolism activities are repressed in plant cultured cells may be that the expression of secondary metabolism is closely correlated with morphological differentiation and is repressed in cultured cells under conditions of dedifferentiation such as those in actively dividing cultured cells.