• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.279-284
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• 1997

The extracellular sesquiterpenoids were accumulated in cell and hairy root cultures of Hyoscyamus muticus by elicitation using extracts of Rhizoctonia solani. The vetispiradiene synthase (VS) which is the first committed step in biosynthetic pathway leading to formation of solavetivone, lubimin, and rishitin from isoprenoid intermediate farnesyl pyrophosphate was induced upon elicitation, whereas no sesquiterpenoids and VS activity were detected in both control cell and hairy root cultures. VS activity increased rapidly and reached its maximum 12 h in both cell and hairy root cultures upon elicitor treatment. VS activities were paralleled with the absolute levels of VS polypeptide(s). Interestingly, the profiles of sesquiterpenoid accumulation in hairy root cultures were different from those in cell cultures. The hairy root culture seemed to fail to metabolize solavetivone further to lubimin.