Influence of peanut hairy root cultivars on prenylated stilbenoid production and the response mechanism for combining the elicitors of chitosan, methyl jasmonate, and cyclodextrin.

Peanut cultivars are known to produce stilbene compounds. Transcriptional control plays a key role in the early stages of the stress response mechanism, involving both PR-proteins and stilbene compounds. In this study, the production of stilbenoid compounds, especially prenylated, was investigated in two cultivars of peanut hairy root lines, designated as K2-K599 and T9-K599 elicited with a combination of chitosan (CHT), methyl jasmonate (MeJA), and cyclodextrin (CD): CHT + MeJA + CD. The antioxidant activities and stilbenoid content of both K2-K599 and T9-K599 hairy root lines increased significantly during the elicitation period. The T9-K599 hairy root line expressed higher ABTS and FRAP antioxidant activities than the K2-K599 line while the latter exhibited greater total phenolic content than the former at all-time points. Additionally, the K2-K599 line exhibited more stilbene compounds, including trans-resveratrol, trans-arachidin-1, and trans-arachidin-3 than the T9-K599 line, which showed statistically significant differences at all-time points. Gene expression of the enzyme involved in the stilbene biosynthesis pathway (PAL, RS, RS3) was observed, responding early to elicitor treatment and the metabolic production of a high level of stilbenoid compounds at a later stage. The antioxidant enzyme (CuZn-SOD, APX, GPX) and pathogenesis-related protein (PR; PR4A, PR5, PR10, chitinase) genes were strongly expressed after elicitor treatment at 24 h and decreased with an increasing elicitation time. Investigation of the response mechanism illustrates that the elicitor treatment can affect various plant responses, including plant cell wall structure and integrity, antioxidant system, PR-proteins, and secondary plant metabolites at different time points after facing external environmental stimuli.