Abstract
Soil salinity is one of the most relevant abiotic factors affecting global crop productivity. It also influences the composition of secondary metabolites in medicinal plant species. Lippia alba has great economic and industrial potential, which thanks to its essential oils rich in bioactive compounds and is an important plant in South American popular medicine. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of salt stress on the anatomy and growth of L. alba plants cultured in vitro, as well as the profile of essential oils and the expression of genes related to their synthesis. To this end, nodal segments were cultured in MS medium with the addition of 0, 30, 60, or 90 mM NaCl. After 40 days, growth, essential oil composition, and the expression of genes involved in mono- and sesquiterpenes biosynthesis were assayed. We found that salt stress affected primary metabolism of L. alba, impairing growth, development, and physiological activities. Alterations in secondary metabolism included an increase in linalool and a reduction in eucalyptol levels in plants under more severe salt stress (60 mM). Thus, while high concentrations of NaCl may compromise the physiology of L. alba plants, plasticity of this species under moderate salt stress allows growth and development without damage to the biosynthesis of mono- and sesquiterpenes.
Key Message
Moderate salt stress significantly alters the percentage of linalool and eucalyptol in plants of Lippia alba grown in vitro.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, DF, Brazil; Grants 432412/2016-6 and 313740/2017-8 to LFV), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior, CAPES, DF, Brazil; Finance Code 001), for financial support. Dr. Roberto Fontes Vieira (Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia—Embrapa/Cenargen, Brasília, DF, Brazil) is acknowledged for providing the Lippia alba accession, and Dr. Fátima R.G. Salimena (Department of Botany, UFJF) for identifying L. alba accessions. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.
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KMC and DSB conceived and designed the experiments; KMC raised the in vitro plants; TDS, EAF, SHSF, AMF, and RMJS performed the morpho-anatomical and physiological analyses; KMC, LSQN, VRC, and RMG performed the chemical analyses; DSB performed the gene expression analysis by RT-qPCR; KMC and DSB performed the statistical analysis; KMC, DSB, LFV, RMG, and WCO contributed to the design and interpretation of the research and to the writing of the paper. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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de Castro, K.M., Batista, D.S., Silva, T.D. et al. Salinity modulates growth, morphology, and essential oil profile in Lippia alba L. (Verbenaceae) grown in vitro. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 140, 593–603 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-019-01755-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-019-01755-8