Department of Plant Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, 1 Miecznikowa Street, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 May 18;23(10):5640. doi: 10.3390/ijms23105640.
The present study investigated the changes in the content of steroids and triterpenoids in hairy root cultures and plants exposed to cadmium stress. The observed effects included the content and composition of analyzed groups of compounds, particularly the proportions among individual sterols (e.g., stigmasterol-to-sitosterol ratio), their ester and glycoside conjugates. The total sterol content increased in roots (by 30%) and hairy root culture (by 44%), whereas it decreased in shoots (by 15%); moreover, these effects were inversely correlated with Cd-induced growth suppression. Metabolic alterations of sterols and their forms seemed to play a greater role in the response to Cd stress in roots than in shoots. The symptoms of the competition between general metabolites (sterols) and specialized metabolites (triterpenoids) were also observed, i.e., the increase of the sterol biosynthesis parallel to the decrease of the triterpenoid content in plant roots and hairy root culture, and the inverse phenomenon in shoots. The similarity of the metabolic modifications observed in the present study on plant roots and hairy roots confirmed the possibility of application of plant in vitro cultures in initial studies for physiological research on plant response to environmental stresses.
本研究调查了暴露于镉胁迫下的毛状根培养物和植物中甾体和三萜类化合物含量的变化。观察到的影响包括分析化合物组的含量和组成，特别是个别甾醇（例如豆甾醇-谷甾醇比）及其酯和糖苷缀合物的比例。在根（增加 30%）和毛状根培养物（增加 44%）中总甾醇含量增加，而在芽中则减少（减少 15%）；此外，这些效应与 Cd 诱导的生长抑制呈负相关。甾醇及其形式的代谢改变似乎在根中对 Cd 胁迫的反应中比在芽中起更大的作用。还观察到一般代谢物（甾醇）和特殊代谢物（三萜类化合物）之间竞争的症状，即在植物根和毛状根培养物中甾醇生物合成增加的同时，三萜类化合物含量减少，而在芽中则相反。本研究中在植物根和毛状根中观察到的代谢修饰的相似性证实了植物体外培养物在植物对环境胁迫反应的生理研究的初步研究中的应用可能性。
