Micropropagation study and production of transgenic callus from daucus glaber forssk

Daucus glaber Forssk, a wild annual herb, is distributed from the Mediterranean area to East Asia. This plant seems to be rich in important medicinally active secondary metabolites as volatile oils, phenylpropanoid esters, sesquiterpene lactones and flavonoids that have many biological activities. Experiments were carried out to optimize conditions for callus induction, somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis from leaf, stem and root explants of the in vitro germinated seeds of Daucus glaber Forssk. The study investigated the volatile constituents isolated from in vitro induced calli and micropropagated plant using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GLC/MS), besides screening three nonvolatile compounds previously isolated from the wild plant (Angeloyloxylatifolone, Glaberin A and Talasin A) in induced calli and micropropagated plants using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Some calli and micropropagated plant showed strong cytotoxic activity against HepG2 cell line and a significant anti-microbial activity against Aspergillusfumigatus, Streptococcus Pneumonia, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli. An approach for a suitable transformation system was developed for Daucus glaber by co-cultivation of the seedlings with Agrobacterium tumefaciens GV 3101 that contains pTRA-K-TL-cTP plasmid carrying phytoene synthase (PSY) gene.