Cultivation of diploid and tetraploid hairy roots of Datura stramonium L. in stirred tank bioreactor for tropane alkaloids production

• Main Authors: ATANAS PAVLOV, IVAN IVANOV, VASIL GEORGIEV, ANDREY MARCHEV
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Plovdiv University Press 2012-01-01
• Series: Journal of BioScience and Biotechnology
• Subjects: hyoscyamine; scopolamine; ploidy level; aeration rate
• Online Access: http://www.jbb.uni-plovdiv.bg/documents/27807/33335/jbb_2012-1(3)-pages_211-216.pdf

Biomass accumulation and tropane alkaloids production by diploid and tetraploid hairy root cultures of Datura stramonium L. cultivated in stirred tank bioreactor at different aeration rates were investigated. The maximal growth for both hairy root cultures (ADB = 8.3 g/L and 6.8 g/L for diploid and tetraploid line, respectively) was achieved at aeration rate of 15.0 L/(L.h). The corresponding growth indexes were remarkably high (GIDW = 9.0 and 7.8 for diploid and tetraploid line, respectively) compared to the values, usually reported for other hairy root cultures. The optimal aeration rate for biomass accumulation was also optimal for alkaloids biosynthesis. According to our survey, the achieved maximal amounts of accumulated hyoscyamine (35.0 mg/L and 27.0 mg/L for diploid and tetraploid line) were the highest reported in the scientific literature for D. stramonium L. hairy roots. During the cultivation in stirred tank bioreactor, the hairy roots biosynthesized pharmaceutically important alkaloid scopolamine in minor concentrations. This is an important observation since scopolamine was not detected during submerged cultivation of these hairy root lines in other bioreactor types. However, the ploidy level was found to be the most important factor concerning scopolamine production by D. stramonium L. hairy roots cultures. The present work demonstrated the effect of ploidity levels on biomass accumulation and tropane alkaloids production by D. stramonium L. hairy roots cultivated in stirred tank bioreactor. This investigation show that the stirred tank bioreactor could be successfully applied for both maximal biomass accumulations, as well as for manipulation of tropane alkaloids production by diploid and tetraploid D. stramonium L. hairy root cultures.