One of the aims of plant in vitro culture is to produce secondary plant metabolites using plant cells and organ cultures, such as cell suspensions, adventitious, and hairy roots (among others). In cases where the biosynthesis of a compound in the plant is restricted to a specific organ, unorganized systems, such as plant cell cultures, are sometimes unsuitable for biosynthesis. Then, its production is based on the establishment of organ cultures such as roots or aerial shoots.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore knowledge is needed about the molecular/cellular control of paclitaxel (PTX) production in spp. cell cultures. In this study, the yield of this anticancer agent in cell suspensions was improved 11-fold after elicitation with coronatine (COR) compared to the untreated cells, and 18-fold when co-supplemented with methyl-β-cyclodextrins (β-CDs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTaxus baccata L. cell culture is a promising commercial method for the production of taxanes with anti-cancer activities. In the present study, a T.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnvironmental conditions are key factors in the modulation of the epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene expression in plants. Specifically, the maintenance of cell cultures in optimal conditions alters methylation patterns and, consequently, their genetic transcription and metabolism. Paclitaxel production in cell cultures is reduced during its maintenance in conditions, compromising the biotechnological production of this valuable anticancer agent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaclitaxel (PTX), a widely used anticancer agent, is found in the inner bark of several Taxus species, although at such low levels that its extraction is ecologically unsustainable. Biotechnological platforms based on Taxus sp. cell cultures offer an eco-friendlier approach to PTX production, with yields that can be improved by elicitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFModern lifestyle factors, such as physical inactivity, obesity, smoking, and exposure to environmental pollution, induce excessive generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the body. These by-products of oxygen metabolism play a key role in the development of various human diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart failure, brain damage, muscle problems, premature aging, eye injuries, and a weakened immune system. Synthetic and natural antioxidants, which act as free radical scavengers, are widely used in the food and beverage industries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEngineered plant cell lines have the potential to achieve enhanced metabolite production rates, providing a high-yielding source of compounds of interest. Improving the production of taxanes, pharmacologically valuable secondary metabolites of spp., is hindered by an incomplete knowledge of the taxane biosynthetic pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTaxane diterpenes are secondary metabolites with an important pharmacological role in the treatment of cancer. Taxus spp. biofactories have been used for taxane production, but the lack of knowledge about the taxane biosynthetic pathway and its molecular regulation hinders their optimal function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRuscus aculeatus is a threatened medicinal plant whose main bioactive components, the ruscogenins, have long been used in the treatment of hemorrhoids and varicose veins, but recently demonstrated activity against some types of cancer. Plant cell biofactories could constitute an alternative to the whole plant as a source of ruscogenins. In this pipeline, despite the in vitro recalcitrance of R.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany medicinal plant species are currently threatened in their natural habitats because of the growing demand for phytochemicals worldwide. A sustainable alternative for the production of bioactive plant compounds are plant biofactories based on cell cultures and organs. In addition, plant extracts from biofactories have significant advantages over those obtained from plants, since they are free of contamination by microorganisms, herbicides and pesticides, and they provide more stable levels of active ingredients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant cell biofactories offer great advantages for the production of plant compounds of interest, although certain limitations still need to be overcome before their maximum potential is reached. One obstacle is the gradual loss of secondary metabolite production during in vitro culture maintenance, which is an important impediment in the development of large-scale production systems. The relationship between in vitro maintenance and epigenetic changes has been demonstrated in several plant species; in particular, methylation levels have been found to increase in in vitro cultures over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant cell biofactories represent a promising solution to the increasing demand for plant-derived compounds, but there are still limiting factors that prevent optimal production, including the loss of yield during in vitro maintenance. Our results reveal a clear correlation between genomic methylation levels and a progressive decline in taxane production in Taxus spp. cell cultures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLinum album is a herbaceous plant with medical interest due to its content of podophyllotoxin (PTOX), an aryltetralin lignan with cytotoxic activity. Previous studies in our laboratory showed that cell suspension cultures of L. album produced more PTOX than methoxypodophyllotoxin (6-MPTOX), both lignans being formed from the same precursor after divergence close to the end of the biosynthetic pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe anticancer compound podophyllotoxin and other related lignans can be produced in Linum album in vitro cultures, although their biosynthesis varies according to the degree of differentiation of the plant material. In general, L. album cell cultures do not form the same lignans as roots or other culture systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant cell cultures constitute a potentially efficient and sustainable tool for the production of high added-value bioactive compounds. However, due to the inherent restrictions in the expression of secondary metabolism, to date the yields obtained have generally been low. Plant cell culture elicitation can boost production, sometimes leading to dramatic improvements in yield, as well as providing insight into the target biosynthetic pathways and the regulation of the genes involved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTobacco hairy root (HR) cultures, which have been widely used for the heterologous production of target compounds, have an innate capacity to bioconvert exogenous t-resveratrol (t-R) into t-piceatannol (t-Pn) and t-pterostilbene (t-Pt). We established genetically engineered HR carrying the gene encoding stilbene synthase (STS) from Vitis vinifera and/or the transcription factor (TF) AtMYB12 from Arabidopsis thaliana, in order to generate a holistic response in the phenylpropanoid pathway and coordinate the up-regulation of multiple metabolic steps. Additionally, an artificial microRNA for chalcone synthase (amiRNA CHS) was utilized to arrest the normal flux through the endogenous chalcone synthase (CHS) enzyme, which would otherwise compete for precursors with the STS enzyme imported for the flux deviation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplastomic plants are a system of choice for the mass production of biopharmaceuticals due to the polyploidy of the plastid genome and the low risk of pollen-mediated outcrossing because of maternal inheritance. However, as field-grown plants, they can suffer contamination by agrochemicals and fertilizers, as well as fluctuations in yield due to climatic changes and infections. Tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), a protein used to treat heart attacks, converts plasminogen into plasmine, which digests fibrin and induces the dissolution of fibrin clots.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe growing demand for -resveratrol for industrial uses has generated considerable interest in its production. Heterologous resveratrol production in plant cell suspensions, apart from requiring the introduction of only one or two genes, has the advantage of high biomass yield and a short cultivation time, and thus could be an option for large-scale production. is the source of the flavonolignan silymarin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a herbaceous plant of Asian traditional medicine. Besides wound healing, this plant is recommended for the treatment or care of various skin conditions such as dry skin, leprosy, varicose ulcers, eczema, and/or psoriasis. Triterpene saponins, known as centellosides, are the main metabolites associated with these beneficial effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bioactive plant secondary metabolites have complex chemical structures, which are specific to each plant species/family, and accumulate in tiny amounts. The growing market demand for many phytochemicals can lead to the over-harvesting of medicinal plants in their natural habitat, endangering species in the process.
Objective: An ongoing challenge for our society is therefore to develop a bio-sustainable production of phytochemicals, among other natural resources.
Plants are low cost platforms for the production of recombinant proteins, but their complexity renders the purification of plant recombinant proteins more difficult than proteins expressed in yeast or bacteria. Plastid transformation enables high-level expression of foreign genes and the accumulation of recombinant proteins in plastid organelles. Histidine (His) tags are widely used for affinity purification of recombinant proteins in a nickel column.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants remain a major source of new drugs, leads and fine chemicals. Cell cultures deriving from plants offer a fascinating tool to study plant metabolic pathways and offer large scale production systems for valuable compounds - commercial examples include compounds such as paclitaxel. The major constraint with undifferentiated cell cultures is that they are generally considered to be genetically unstable and cultured cells tend to produce low yields of secondary metabolites especially over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The secondary metabolites of the Artemisia genus are well known for their important therapeutic properties. This genus is one of the valuable sources of flavonoids and other polyphenols, but due to the low contents of these important metabolites, there is a need to either enhance their concentration in the original plant or seek alternative sources for them. The aim of the current study was to detect and enhance the yield of antioxidant compounds of Artemisia carvifolia Buch.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlavonoids are famous for their antioxidant capacity and redox potential. They can combat with cell aging, lipid peroxidation, and cancer. In the present study, Artemisia annua hybrid (Hyb8001r) was subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis of flavonoids through HPLC.
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