Abstract
Three Agrobacterium rhizogenes strains were tested for their ability to transform the plant Morus alba L. and to induce production of the secondary metabolites betulin and betulinic acid. All the tested strains of A. rhizogenes (R1601, LBA9402 and R1000) were able to induce hairy root formation in leaf tissue explants. Strain LBA9402 had the highest rate of infection (92.7% +/- 8.8%), whereas strain R1601 had the lowest rate (87.4% +/- 9.3%). The highest number of hairy roots per explant (5.6 +/- 0.5) and the greatest root length (2.4 +/- 0.2 mm) were obtained with strain LBA9402. We also evaluated dry weight (a measure of growth) and betulin and betulinic acid production in hairy roots and found that the highest growth (167.8 +/- 14.5 mg/flask) occurred after infection with strain LBA9402. Furthermore the highest production of betulin (5.4 +/- 0.4 mg/g dry weight) and betulinic acid (2.3 +/- 0.2 mg/g dry weight) was noted using strain LBA9402. Among three elicitors, yeast extract showed the highest induction of betulin production (8.7 +/- 0.4 mg/g) and silver nitrate induced the highest yield of betulinic acid (4.1 +/- 0.2 mg/g). Our study showed that A. rhizogenes strain LBA9402 was the most effective of the three tested strains for production of transformed root cultures and betulin and betulinic acid.