Effects of fungal extracts on vinblastine and vincristine production and their biosynthesis pathway genes in Catharanthus roseus

Catharanthus roseus is an important medicinal plant due to the production of valuable anticancer secondary metabolites including vinblastine and vincristine. Due to the importance of these alkaloids and their small amounts in C. roseus, one of the strategies to increase their production is using of elicitors. Fungal extracts recently showed that they could act as an elicitor and alter the expression levels of secondary metabolite biosynthesis genes. This study aimed to investigate the effects of fungal extracts on vinblastine and vincristine production in C. roseus. The cell suspension of C. roseus optimized through multiple hormonal treatments and concise analysis of the type of calluses. Fungal extracts of Priformospora and Trichoderma applied in multiple concentrations and in different times to the cell suspensions of C. roseus. The HPLC analysis results showed that the amount of vinblastine was increased; in contrast, it was found that vincristine amount decreased after treatments compared to the controls. In the Real-Time PCR assay, the results showed that the effect of these extracts on the expression levels of DAT and D4H genes was significant and their expression levels was increased in mRNA level. The present study revealed that the fungal extracts have the potential to increase the vinblastine and vincristine accumulation in C. roseus plant.