Morphogenetic and biosynthetic potential of in vitro grown Hypericum perforatum under stress and normal conditions

Abstract: Three different strains of Hypericum perforatum viz. HP-1, HP-2, and HP-3 were subjected to different levels of saline stress (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0% with NaCl) and high pH regime (8.5, 9.0, 9.5 and 10.0 with NaOH). Gradual loss in callus growth was observed in all the three strains in response to both kinds of stress. However, high pH showed more drastic effect than saline stress. All the three strains showed higher content of pseudohypercin than hypercin. Change in hypercin production was negligible, however remarkable change was observed in pseudohypercin production in response to both kinds of stress. HP-2 strain produced higher content of hypercin than HP-1 and HP-3 strains under normal as well as under stressfull regime. Proteins were affected qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Maximum numbers of proteins were isolated from control cultures at the retention time of five minutes. Among the three strains maximum numbers of proteins were isolated from HP-3 strain. High pH reduced number of proteins to 12 and 3 while salinity increased number of proteins to 42 and 52 in HP-1 and HP-2, respectively due to accumulation of low molecular weight proteins in response to saline stress.