Elicitation of thiophene production by cultured hairy roots of Tagetes patula.

Hairy roots of Tagetes patula were initiated by infecting the
seedlings with Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The hairy roots
were grown in liquid medium MS ( Murashige and Skoog
1962) supplemented with sucrose. The roots were treated with
three different elicitors obtained from mycelial culture of Aspergillus
niger, Rhizopus oligosporus and Pencillium notatum.
Accumulation of biomass and the production of thiophenes
were studied over a period of six weeks in culture. The HPLC
separation profile of the thiophenes indicated the presence of
several structurally different thiophenes, ct-terthienyl being
predominent. Maximum production of thiophene was recorded
at the end of the fourth week in culture with a content of 0.138
% (w/w on dry weight basis). Treatment of hairy roots with mycelial
extract of Aspergillus niger (1.5 % v/v) elicited an increase
in thiophene content by 1.6 folds over the control.