“Hairy” root culture of Scutellaria altissima L. for high-level flavonoid production

The study is devoted to the obtaining of Scutellaria “hairy” root culture and the analysis of the level of accumulation of pharmacologically valuable substances in Scutellaria plants. The aim was to obtain the transgenic root culture of Scutellaria altissima L. and Scutellaria albida L. via Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation and to compare the level of flavonoid accumulation in the obtained cultures. Methods: surface sterilization of seeds, A. rhizogenes-mediated genetic transformation, polymerase chain reaction, spectrophotometric method for determination of flavonoids by rutin. As a result of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation we obtained the “hairy” root cultures of these plants, and PCR-analysis proved the transgenic nature of the obtained cultures. A significantly higher flavonoid content was shown for Ri-root culture compared to the roots of plants grown in vitro plants and came up to 0,12 mg/g and 0,09 mg/g respectively. Conclusions. The transgenic root culture of Scutellaria altissima was characterized by a high content of flavonoids and can be considered a pharmacologically promising material.