Abstract
A high-frequency in vitro regeneration of Digitalis davisiana Heywood (Alanya foxglove) and cardiotonic glycoside production from both in vitro produced materials (regenerated plantlets or germinated seedlings) and leaves of natural populations were obtained. Cardiac glycosides regulate heart rhythm and are effective in cancer chemotherapy, in particular for prostate and breast cancer treatments. Testing six different types of culture media revealed that Linsmaier and Skoog (LS) was the most effective for shoot production. Shoot regeneration efficiency was higher when flamingo-bill or hypocotyl explants were cultured on LS medium containing 0.5 mg/l thidiazuron (TDZ) and 0.25 mg/l indoleacetic acid (IAA). Rooting of all shoots that regenerated was readily achieved, even in the absence of plant growth regulators (PGRs). Production of cardenolides (lanatoside C and digoxin) in the materials grown in vitro seemed to correlate with several parameters, such as nutritional and hormonal compositions of the culture medium as well as the duration of culture on the initial regeneration and/or final growth medium. Higher amounts of digoxin accumulation were obtained when shoots were regenerated on LS or Gamborg’s B5 medium containing 0.5 mg/l TDZ and 0.25 mg/l IAA, producing 12.59 and 11.93 mg/kg dry weight (dw) digoxin, respectively. For natural populations, seasonal variations seemed to affect the production of digoxin in the leaves. The highest amount of digoxin (246.58 mg/kg dw) was in leaf samples collected in July, which coincides with the flowering stage of the plant in the region of collection.
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Acknowledgments
The authors deeply appreciate the financial support of TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) for the project TOVAG-106O470. Special thanks are due to Serpil Yenisoy Karakas and Muhammet Oz (Abant Izzet Baysal University, Department of Chemistry) for their technical help with HPLC analyses. The authors are cordially grateful to Peggy G. Lemaux (University of California, Berkeley, USA) for critical reading and revision of the manuscript. We also thank Pedro Perez-Bermudez (University of Valencia, Spain) for kindly sharing his extraction protocol, which was modified from Wiegrebe and Wichtl (1993).
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Gurel, E., Yucesan, B., Aglic, E. et al. Regeneration and cardiotonic glycoside production in Digitalis davisiana Heywood (Alanya Foxglove). Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 104, 217–225 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-010-9824-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-010-9824-3