Analytical Sciences

Enhancement of Vindoline Production in Suspension Culture of the Catharanthus roseus Cell Line C20hi by Light and Methyl Jasmonate Elicitation

Lihong HE,*,** Li YANG,* Ronghui TAN,* Shujuan ZHAO,* and Zhibi HU*

*The SATCM Key Laboratory for New Resources & Quality Evaluation of Chinese Medicines, The Shanghai Key Laboratory for Compound Chinese Medicines, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
**Department of Cell Biology, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China

The effects of light and methyl jasmonate (MJ) on the transcription of biosynthetic genes as well as the accumulation of vindoline and catharanthine in Catharanthus roseus C20hi cell suspensions were studied. t16h (the gene encoding tabersonine 16-hydroxylase) could be induced by light and MJ, whereas d4h (the gene encoding deacetoxyvindoline 4-hydroxylase) could only be induced by light. Quantification by UPLC-MS showed that light significantly increased vindoline production in C20hi cells by about 0.49 – 5.51-fold more than that in controls, with the highest yield being 75.3 ng/g of dry weight. The biosynthesis of vindoline was further enhanced by combining MJ with light. The accumulation of catharanthine was not improved by either light or MJ elicitation. These results suggested that light and MJ could promote vindoline, but not catharanthine accumulation in C20hi cells.

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