Elicitation of tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in transformed root cultures of Datura stramonium

Hairy root cultures of Datura stramonium were treated with methyl jasmonate (MeJa), a cell wall preparation from baker's yeast and oligogalacturonides, respectively, and analysed for the accumulation of the tropane alkaloids, littorine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine, and their precursors, phenyllactate and tropine. The treatments increased alkaloid accumulation in the order MeJa > fungal elicitor > oligogalacturonide and, in all cases, this was associated with an increase in tropine but a decline in phenyllactate concentrations. Time-course studies following MeJa treatments confirmed that increased tropane alkaloid synthesis was due to the differential enhancement of tropine biosynthesis. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.