Enhanced astragaloside production and transcriptional responses of biosynthetic genes in Astragalus membranaceus hairy root cultures by elicitation with methyl jasmonate

In this work, the elicitation of Astragalus membranaceus hairy root cultures (AMHRCs) with methyl jasmonate (MJ), salicylic acid (SA) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) was conducted to boost astragaloside (AG) biosynthesis. MJ was found to be the most effective inducer for AG production among all elicitor treatments. The highest enhancement of AG accumulation was achieved in 34 day-old AMHRCs elicited by 157.4 μM MJ for 18.4 h. The resulting AG yield was 5.5 ± 0.13 mg/g dry weight (DW), which was 2.1-fold higher than that of non-treated control (2.7 ± 0.05 mg/g DW). Moreover, transcriptional analyses revealed that MVD, IDI, FPS and SS were the potential key regulated genes in AG biosynthetic pathway. Overall, this study offered a feasible approach of utilizing MJ elicitation for the enhanced production of valuable AGs in AMHRCs, and also provided a basis for AG biosynthesis via metabolic engineering strategies in the future.