Increasing the Production of Plant Secondary Metabolites Using Biotic Elicitors

Plants produce a big group of secondary metabolites which are used as medicinal compounds. According to recent estimates، global market value of herbal medicines، including medicinal plants and their products، significantly has been increasing. Considering to the fact that most of the world market for medicinal plants، production and supply of secondary metabolites derived from these plants are concerned and the plant secondary metabolites are of high economic value. Chemical synthesis of these metabolites is an expensive process. So production of metabolites by different biotechnological methods such as cell culture is a useful alternative. Molecular recognition and elicitor-plant receptors interaction is a complex process requiring for signal transduction. Biotic elicitors induce secondary metabolites and hypersensitive responses by activation of defense mechanisms. Manipulation of cell culture media by elicitors is an important strategy for inducing secondary metabolism and production of valuable metabolites. Molecular recognition and elicitor-plant receptors interaction is a complex process requiring for signal transduction. Following perception of elicitor signals، rapid defense responses can be organized as follows: increase of ionic currents across the plasma membrane، reactive oxygen species (ROS) production، activation of defense gene expression، structural changes in the cell wall and phytoalexin production. In this study، different aspects of increasing the production of secondary metabolites in cell culture of plants by biotic elicitors is investigated.