Genome Estimation and Phytochemical Compound Identification in the Leaves and Callus of Abrus precatorius : A Locally Endangered Plant from the Flora of Saudi Arabia

• Published in: Plants (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 4; p. 567
• Main Authors: Al-Qurainy, Fahad, Tarroum, Mohamed, Khan, Salim, Nadeem, Mohammad, Gaafar, Abdel-Rhman Z, Alansi, Saleh, Alfarraj, Norah S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21-02-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: 2,4-D; Abrus precatorius; Acids; Callus; callus induction; Cell cycle; Comparative analysis; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid; DNA; Drug development; Endangered & extinct species; Endangered plants; Endangered species; Explants; Flavonoids; Flora; Flow cytometry; Flowers & plants; Gas chromatography; Genomes; Herbal medicine; High performance liquid chromatography; Leaves; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolites; Mountains; Natural products; Nucleotide sequence; Phenols; Phylogeny; phytochemical compounds; Phytochemicals; Secondary metabolites; Seeds; Tomatoes; Saudi Arabia; Abrus precatorius; flow cytometry; phytochemical compounds; callus induction
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants11040567

is considered to be a valuable source of natural products for the development of drugs against various diseases. Herein, the genome size and phytochemical compounds in the leaves and callus of
were evaluated. The endangered
was collected from the Al-Baha mountains, Saudi Arabia and identified based on the phylogenetic analysis of a DNA sequence amplified by ITS1 and ITS4 primers. The callus was induced by the culture of stem explants onto Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) supplemented with various combinations of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4D) and 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP). The callus with the highest fresh weight (2.03 g) was obtained in the medium containing 0.5µM BA and 5 µM 2,4-D after 8 weeks of culture; thus, the callus of this combination was selected for the genome estimation and phytochemical compound extraction. The genetic stability of the leaves from the donor as well as in the regenerated callus was analyzed by flow cytometry with optimized tomato (2C = 1.96 pg) as an external reference standard. The 2C DNA content was estimated to 1.810 pg ± 0.008 and 1.813 pg ± 0.004 for the leaves and callus, respectively. Then, the total phenol and total flavonoid contents in the methanol extract of the callus and leaves were measured using a spectrophotometer and the High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC ) methods. The results showed that the methanolic extract of the leaves was higher in total phenols and total flavonoids than the callus extract. Finally, the extracts of callus and leaves were analyzed for phytochemical compound through the Gas chromatography and Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). A total of 22 and 28 compounds were detected in the callus and leaves, respectively. The comparative analysis showed that 12 compounds of the secondary metabolites were present in both extracts.