Peroxidase and polyamine activity variation during the in vitro rooting of Berberis buxifolia

M ARENA; G MARTÍNEZ PASTUR; P BENAVIDEZ; D ZAPPACOSTA; E ELIASCO; N CURVETTO

New Zealand Journal of Botany

Año: 2003 p. 475 - 485

0028-825X

Berberis buxifolia is a Patagonian shrubwith great economic potential for tinctorial,pharmacological, and food industries. Clonalpropagation is possible through in vitro culture andis also useful for metabolite production. However,this species is difficult to root, and to improve this,more knowledge of rhizogenesis processes isneeded. Polyamines and peroxidases are usefulbiochemical markers during analysis of rootingphases for correlation with tissue morphologicalchanges. Therefore, endogenous polyamine(putrescine, spermidine, spermine) changes, peroxidaseactivity evolution, and morphologicaldevelopment were studied to characterise the invitro rhizogenesis of microshoots of B. buxifoliaand, thus, to define the rooting phases. Polyamineand peroxidase changed significantly during therooting period, and had opposite behaviours whichwere directly related to the IBA media content. Thelower polyamine concentration and the higherperoxidase activity were found in a treatment witha dark period during the first four days and withIBA in the culture medium. Putrescine was the mostabundant polyamine found in B. buxifolia tissues,14- to 18-fold more than spermidine and spermine,respectively. Therefore, these compounds wereused to define the rooting phases: an inductionphase (0 to 4–7 days) followed by an expressionphase (4–7 to 28 days). The observed changes inthe biochemical markers could be correlated withmicroscopic and macroscopic tissue observationsin the microshoots, and the time course of rootingpercentage. Successive culture media can bedeveloped including polyamines, or othercompounds and environmental conditions, whichpositively modify the studied biochemical markersbehaviour.