Assessment of hairy roots induction of the medicinal plant Alecost (Tanacetum balsamita L.) using Agrobacterium rhizogenes

Alecost (Tanacetum balsamita L.), belongs to the Asteraseae family, is a pharmacologically important species rich in important secondary metabolites including flavones, sesquiterpene lactones, phenylpropane compounds and derivatives, tannins and essential oils. Alecost has been used both fresh or dried as flavouring or food additive. Additionally, it has medicinal properties and is applied in aromatic products. In addition to traditional farming, in vitro hairy root culture has been found to be suitable for the production of secondary metabolites. Therefore, in order to establish a protocol for hairy root culture of alecost, root induction by co-cultivation with Agrobacterium rhizogenes (strain A4) was assessed in this study. Different explants (cotyledon, young leaf, stem and root) showed different responses to hairy root induction by Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Moreover, the frequencies of hairy root induction for different types of explants were considerably different. The induced roots were shown to be transformed by PCR using primers specific for rolB. This is the first report of hairy root induction in alecost and the results may be useful in genetic manipulation of Tanacetum balsamita and use of hairy root culture to produce high-value secondary metabolites.