Establishment of Dittrichia viscosa L. Hairy Roots and Improvement of Bioactive Compound Production

<i>Dittrichia viscosa</i> is a ruderal plant species growing along roadsides and well adapting to extreme environmental conditions. <i>D. viscosa</i> plant tissues, especially leaves, are known to be a rich source of bioactive metabolites which have antioxidant, cytotoxic, antiproliferative and anticancer properties. Hairy root cultures are a suitable biotechnological system for investigating plant metabolic pathways and producing specialized metabolites in in vitro conditions. In this study, <i>D. viscosa</i> hairy root transformed lines induced by <i>Agrobacterium rhizogenes</i> ATCC15834 were obtained using leaf explants, and the integration of <i>rolB</i> and <i>rolC</i> genes in the genomes of transformed hairy roots were confirmed by PCR analysis. Three hairy root <i>D. viscosa</i> lines (DvHrT1, DvHrT4 and DvHrT5) having different phenotypic features were characterized in terms of total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity. Correlated with antioxidant activity, phenolic and flavonoid content of DvHrT1 was significantly higher than control roots and the other DvHrT lines. Our results suggest that <i>D. viscosa</i> hairy roots can be a valuable tool for producing various bioactive compounds having antioxidant activity and are to be further investigated to produce other specific molecules that could find application in agricultural or pharmaceutical fields.