Elicitation and precursor induced approaches for the enhancement of α−tocopherol production using suspension cultures of Solanum lycopersicum

Elicitation and precursor feeding are the effective strategies for enhancing the synthesis of bioactive compounds in plant cell suspension cultures. The present study aimed to explore an efficient elicitation and precursor feeding protocol and its effect on inducing the accumulation of α-tocopherol in Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) suspension cell culture. The tomato cell suspension cultures were treated with different elicitors (Methyl Jasmonate, Salicylic acid and Yeast extract) and precursors (Homogentisic acid, Tyrosine, Hydroxypyruvic acid and Phytol) and the effect of α-tocopherol production was studied. Significant increase in the α-tocopherol was observed on day 5 upon methyl jasmonate treatment which represented 17.7 fold increase in comparison to the control. The treatment of precursor in combination viz., 150 μM Homogentisic acid + 150 μM Phytol showed the maximum enhancement of α-tocopherol up to 22 fold on day 10 compared to the untreated control. These results suggested that the suspension cultures combining with the optimal precursor feeding and elicitors enhanced the production of α-tocopherol in economically important tomato cell cultures.