Spotting priming-active compounds using parsley cell cultures in microtiter plates

Area of Science:

• Plant Science
• Biotechnology
• Agricultural Chemistry

Background:

• Conventional crop protection faces challenges like pesticide resistance and environmental concerns.
• Plant defense priming offers an eco-friendly alternative by enhancing natural plant defenses.
• Current methods for identifying priming compounds are often slow and labor-intensive, requiring offline analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a high-throughput, online screening system for identifying plant defense priming-inducing compounds.
• To enable simultaneous online monitoring of furanocoumarins and salicylic acid fluorescence in plant cell cultures.
• To establish a method applicable to various plant species for discovering novel crop protection agents.

Main Methods:

• Development of a microtiter plate-based system for online monitoring of plant cell culture respiration.
• Utilizing parsley cell cultures to measure oxygen transfer rate (OTR) as an indicator of priming.
• Simultaneous online fluorescence measurement of furanocoumarins and salicylic acid (SA) in microtiter plates.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated the validity of measuring breathing activity in microtiter plates for assessing priming.
• Successfully monitored furanocoumarin and salicylic acid fluorescence online in real-time.
• Identified optimal conditions (dose and time) for salicylic acid-induced priming in parsley cell suspensions.

Conclusions:

• Online measurement of OTR and fluorescence in microtiter plates is a powerful, high-throughput tool for studying priming compounds.
• This method accelerates the discovery of new priming compounds, promoting sustainable agriculture.
• The developed system is adaptable for screening other plant species and potentially intact plants.