Elicitation of anthocyanin production in callus cultures of Daucus carota and the involvement of methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid

The effect of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) on the anthocyanin accumulation, endogenous titres of polyamines and ethylene production in callus cultures of Daucus carota were studied. The interaction of these signaling molecules with elicitors from Aspergillus niger was investigated and the involvement of MeJA was elucidated through the use of the jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthetic inhibitor ibuprofen. MeJA and SA were both found to stimulate the anthocyanin production in the callus cultures. The highest levels of anthocyanin was observed in the cultures treated with 200 µM SA 0.36 % and 0.01 µM MeJA 0.37 %. The MeJA and SA treatments were also found to result in higher activity of Ca2+ ATPase suggesting that the enhancement of anthocyanin by SA and MeJA could be mediated through the involvement of the calcium channel. The treatment of the callus cultures with SA was found to result in marginally higher titres of endogenous polyamines (PAs) whereas MeJA resulted in lower levels of PAs as compared to the control. The SA treatment was found to result in lower ethylene production and the treatment with MeJA stimulated the ethylene production. These results suggest that the stimulation of anthocyanin production by MeJA and SA in callus cultures of D. carota is not related to the ethylene production.