Effect of gamma rays and colchicine on silymarin production in cell suspension cultures of Silybum marianum: A transcriptomic study of key genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway.

The aim of this study was to investigate secondary metabolite production in Silybum marianum L. cell suspension cultures obtained from seeds treated with gamma rays (200 and 600 Gy) and 0.05% colchicine. The effects of these treatments on callus induction, growth, viability, and silymarin production were studied, along with the changes in the transcriptome and DNA sequence of chalcone synthase (CHS) genes. The effect of gamma radiation (200 and 600 Gy) on silymarin production in S. marianum dry seeds was also studied using HPLC-UV. All three treatments induced high callus biomass production from leaf segments. The viability of the cell suspension cultures was over 90%. The flavonolignan content measured in the extracellular culture medium of the S. marianum cell suspension was highest after treatment with 600 Gy, followed by 0.05% colchicine, and finally, 200 Gy, after a growth period of 12 days. In general, an increased expression of CHS1, CHS2, and CHS3 genes, accompanied by an increase of silymarin content, was observed in response to all the studied treatments, although the effect was greatest on CHS2 expression. Bioinformatics analysis confirmed that the three CHS2 clones exhibited the highest genetic variation, both in relation to each other and to the CHS1 and CHS3 clones. Based on the results, S. marianum plants obtained from seeds previously exposed to 600 and 200 Gy as well as colchicine constitute a renewable resource with the potential to obtain large amounts of silymarin.