Methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid as powerful elicitors for enhancing the production of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants: an updated review

Abstract

Plant secondary metabolites are bioactive scaffolds that are crucial for plant survival in the environment and to maintain a defense mechanism from predators. These compounds are generally present in plants at a minimal level and interestingly, they are found to have a wide variety of therapeutic values for humans. Several medicinal plants are used for pharmaceutical purposes due to their affordability, fewer adverse effects, and vital role in traditional remedies. Owing to this reason, these plants are exploited at a high range worldwide and therefore many medicinal plants are on the threatened list. There is a need of the hour to tackle this major problem, one effective approach called elicitation can be used to enhance the level of existing and novel plant bioactive compounds using different types of elicitors namely biotic and abiotic. This process can be generally achieved by in vitro and in vivo experiments. The current comprehensive review provides an overview of biotic and abiotic elicitation strategies used in medicinal plants, as well as their effects on secondary metabolites enhancement. Further, this review mainly deals with the enhancement of biomass and biosynthesis of different bioactive compounds by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) as elicitors of wide medicinal plants in in vitro by using different cultures. The present review was suggested as a significant groundwork for peers working with medicinal plants by applying elicitation strategies along with advanced biotechnological approaches.

Modulation of Tropane Alkaloids’ Biosynthesis and Gene Expression by Methyl Jasmonate in Datura stramonium L.: A Comparative Analysis of Scopolamine, Atropine, and Hyoscyamine Accumulation

“…Moradi et al's [22] exploration of MJ's impact on h6h, PMT1, and PMT2 expression in chamomile plants also provides a parallel to our findings, where h6h expression remained unchanged in the leaves, and PMT expression was detected in both treated and untreated leaves. The differences in gene expression and alkaloid accumulation between the studies could be due to the different treatment durations and the inherent interspecies variability in response to MJ.…”

“…The current study's findings on the impact of MJ on tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in D. stramonium offer a nuanced perspective compared to previous research. The observed increase in atropine and decreased scopolamine in the roots after MJ treatment align with Moradi et al's findings [22], which suggested that 150 µM MJ was optimal for producing alkaloids in henbane hairy roots. However, the lack of significant changes in scopolamine levels in the leaves in the present study contrasts with Moradi et al's [22] results, where scopolamine levels increased (Dubey et al, 2021) [43].…”

“…The observed increase in atropine and decreased scopolamine in the roots after MJ treatment align with Moradi et al's findings [22], which suggested that 150 µM MJ was optimal for producing alkaloids in henbane hairy roots. However, the lack of significant changes in scopolamine levels in the leaves in the present study contrasts with Moradi et al's [22] results, where scopolamine levels increased (Dubey et al, 2021) [43]. This discrepancy may be attributed to the different species studied, as well as the duration of the experiment.…”

“…Among the various elicitors investigated, methyl jasmonate (MJ), a plant hormone integral to physiological regulation and stress response mechanisms, has garnered significant attention. Research in Refs (Ho et al, 2020;Jeyasri et al, 2023;Yu et al, 2018) [22][23][24] has elucidated MJ's role in modulating the expression of pivotal genes within the tropane alkaloid biosynthetic pathway, including h6h and PMT. Moradi et al (Moradi et al, 2020) [25] further demonstrated that MJ's application can lead to alterations in gene expression, thereby impacting the production of these pharmacologically important alkaloids.…”

Methyl jasmonate inducible UGT79A18 is a novel glycosyltransferase involved in the bacoside biosynthetic pathway in Bacopa monnieri

“…Foliar monoterpene and sesquiterpene emissions from many plant species increase after MeJA application (Wuyun et al, 2023;Cappellari et al, 2019). MeJAmediated elicitation is utilized in many commercial strategies for the overproduction of naturally active plant products (Jeyasri et al, 2023). Wounding induces the synthesis of jasmonate, which mediates the defence response in plants (Turner et al, 2002).…”