Effects of Agrobacterium rhizogenes strains and explants on induction of hair root in Physalis alkekengi

Physalis alkekengi L. is a medicinal plant belonging to the Solanaceae family. This plant is rich in phytochemicals such as: physalins, withanolides, sterols, polysaccharides and flavones. P. alkekengi has many uses in traditional medicine and pharmaceutical industry. Hairy root cultures of P. alkekengi can be used to produce secondary metabolites. In this research, the effects of 5 strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes (GM, C58, A4, MSU and 15834) and leaf and stem explants were studied on induction of hairy root in P. alkekengi. The highest transformation rate was related to explants which were inoculated with A4, MSU and 15834 strains. Leaf explants produced 5.6 hairy roots per explant and were better than stem explants (produced 2.9 hairy roots per explant). To confirm the transformation of hairy roots, PCR was performed with specific primers of rol A gene. Electrophoresis of PCR products confirmed the integration of rol A gene (403 bp) to the plant genome. This article is a first published study about induction of hairy root in P. alkekengi.