High yield production of folates from soybean callus cultures in response to elicitors.

Soybean (Indian variety, JS 335) callus growth and its folate content was sustained on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with optimized levels of auxins and cytokinins. Callus cultures exhibited moderate production of total folate. Callus growth was stimulated with highest biomass content of 21.3 g/L DW (24 days culture) on medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) and 0.1 mg/L Kinetin (Kn). Total folate production was enhanced by an increase in indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/L and decreased thereafter up to 1.5 mg/L. 2,4-D at 1.5 mg/L repressed the callus growth and also folate production. A concentration of 1.0 mg/L IAA and 0.2 mg/L Kn elicited folate production to a maximum total folate content of 323.82 µg/100 g DW. The results indicate that optimized medium for callus suspension cultures conceivably are applied for scale-up studies in bioreactors.