On the Nature of the Variation in Yields of Phytochemicals Observed Within Plant Cell Cultures

Abstract

Great differences in the yields of phytoehemicals within a population of clones obtained from plant cell cultures have been reported by a number of investigators and these observations have been reviewed by Deus-Neuman and Zenk (1984), Dougall (1987), and Yamada and Hashimoto (1984). These differences have been exploited to increase yields in plant cell cultures. Only a few of the studies on variability in plant cell cultures have been done in such a way that they can distinguish between variation in the parental culture due to heterogeneity in the original expiant and variation in phytochemical yield arising from single cells within the culture. These studies (Dougall et al. 1980; Matsumoto et al. 1980; Deus-Neuman and Zenk 1984; Ellis 1985) show that clones give rise to subclones displaying a wide range of yields. Using wild carrot cultures and their production of anthocyanin, we have examined some aspects of clonal variation and begun to characterize the differences between high and low yielding clones.