Effect of a biotic elicitor and nano elicitor on some alkaloids production in Papaver somniferum L.

To develop an optimal bioprocess for benzophenanthridin alkaloids production، various metabolite engineering are studied to increase yields، in which one of them is elicitation. Elicitors are biotic or abiotic molecules that have effectively stimulated the production of plant secondary metabolites in cell and organ cultures. Since this plant serves as the only commercial source of morphine and sanguinarine production and chemical synthesis of those alkaloids are not economically feasible، therefor، in this study، after selection of the best media and explant، the effects of two elicitors، nano TiO2 and yeast extract، were studied at different time points (24 and 48h) following treatments on sanguinarine and thebaine production in meristem and root suspension cell cultures. This research was conducted using a randomized complete design with factorial arrangement and three replications. It was observed that these elicitors had the positive effect on accumulation of sanguinarine and thebaine. Elicitation with yeast extract at 48h intervals enhanced the accumulation of sanguinarine (2. 2 times) and thebaine (3. 4 times) compared to the control. Treatment of nano TiO2 in 24h increased both alkaloids (2. 1times) which decreased over the time. This study showed the higher excitability of meristemic cells compared to the root suspension cell culture. Therefore، due to the more provoking and increasing effects on sanguinarine and thebaine content throughout the study، these elicitors and in particular nano one are proved to be promising and suitable candidate for elicitation in both meristem and root cell suspension cultures.