ELICITATION AS A MEANS FOR ENHANCED PLANT SECONDARY METABOLITES THROUGH HAIRY ROOT SYSTEM

Abstract

Elicitation can regulate a large number of control points and stop the expression of key genes involved in cellular activities at biochemical and molecular levels involving signal compounds. This process not only enhances secondary metabolites but also stimulates defense response. It involves physiological and morphological changes within a range for some physical and chemical factors called elicitors. Elicitors are of much interest to the scientific community due to the difficulty faced in the synthesis of secondary metabolites because of their complicated structures. A large number of synthetic and natural elicitors are being used to enhance the secondary metabolites in plant cell cultures including jasmonic acid, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, casein hydrolysate, etc. In addition to natural and synthetic elicitors, researchers have examined the accumulation of bioactive compounds by using biotic elicitors, such as yeast extracts, and abiotic elicitors such as metallic nanoparticles and have reported interesting results. Thus, the present review presents information exclusively on the use of elicitation process for manipulation of secondary metabolites for industry exploitation through hairy root system.