ENHANCEMENT OF SOLASODINE CONTENT USING SIGNAL MOLECULES IN SHOOT CULTURES OF Solanum nigrum
JYOTSNA SHARMA
School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra-182320, Jammu and Kashmir, India
SAVITA SHARMA
School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra-182320, Jammu and Kashmir, India
RAJU SHANKARAYAN
School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra-182320, Jammu and Kashmir, India
SHARADA MALLUBHOTLA
*
School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra-182320, Jammu and Kashmir, India
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Solanum nigrum is a widely used medicinal plant having numerous pharmacological properties due to the presence of glycoalkaloids. However, due to the influence of different environmental factors, the level of these constituents vary widely. An experimental study was conducted wherein shoot cultures of S. nigrum were incubated for a period of 30 days and it was observed that solasodine production was maximum after a period of 6 days growth and the content gradually decreased with an increase in growth time. Therefore, the effect of different signal molecules such as jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, yeast extract and cholesterol was studied on biomass and solasodine production in shoot cultures of S. nigrum for 3, 6 and 9 days. Amongst the treatments analysed, highest solasodine content was obtained in a treatment with jasmonic acid (1.0 mg l-1, 0.28%) which is approximately twice higher than that of control (0.14%) after an exposure time of six days. Maximum biomass was obtained with feeding of a precursor of solasodine cholesterol for 9 days (1.0 mg l-1, 1.56 gm). Thus, the present study proved the significance of signal molecules in enhancement of solasodine production and their effect on culture growth in shoot cultures of S. nigrum.
Keywords: Glycoalkaloids, high performance thin layer chromatography, biomass, precursor.