Production of taxoids in callus and cell suspensions of Taxus chinensis by using abiotic elicitors

Until now, several strategies have been developed to improve the production of secondary metabolites using plant cell cultures, manipulating the parameters of the environment, selecting high yielding cell clones and the use of elicitors. In the present work, callus and cell suspensions of Taxus chinensis lines SN and E15 were used, important specie for the production of metabolites with anticancer activity. The effect of different concentrations of the silver nitrate (1.0; 4.0 and 8.0mg.l-1) and the conditions of total dark and 12 h artificial light about the production of biomass and the taxoids accumulation were studied. The concentrations of AgNO3 used didn’t cause same effect under the different conditions of illumination to those that the cultivations were exposed. The AgNO3 increased the fresh weight under conditions of darkness in which superior values were obtained at 6.0g in all the treatments being bigger when using the concentration of 8.0mg (7.39g). In relation to the taxoids accumulation a bigger influence was observed with 4.0mg under conditions of light (0.93 mg/ gDW), treatment where smaller increment of biomass took place. Cell suspensions in both lines showed better growth that the cultivation of callus, while the biggest accumulation in Taxuyunnanine C was in the cultivation of callus in the line SN. It was observed that the cellular lines had a different behavior in conditions of light and darkness. As for the increment of the biomass the line E15 behaved from a superior way to the line SN as much in the darkness as to the light although the biggest value of fresh weight was obtained in the darkness (7.89g) and the biggest accumulation in Taxuyunnanine C was under conditions of darkness with the line SN (0.98 mg/gDW).Keywords: cell cultures, elicitation, secondary metabolites, taxuyunnanine CAbbreviations: gDW - Grams of dry weight, gFW - grams of fresh weight, AgNO3 - Silver nitrate, Tc - Taxuyunnanine C