Plant Science 162 (2002) 459–468 Integration of jasmonic acid and light irradiation for enhancement of anthocyanin biosynthesis in Vitis inifera suspension cultures Wei Zhang *, Chris Curtin, Mami Kikuchi, Chris Franco Cooperatie Research Center for Bioproducts and Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Flinders Uniersity, Bedford Park, 5042 Adelaide, SA Australia Received 10 August 2001; received in revised form 22 November 2001; accepted 22 November 2001 Abstract In a suspension culture of Vitis inifera cells, anthocyanin biosynthesis was enhanced, whereas the cell growth was inhibited, following either the addition of jasmonic acid or light irradiation. The maximum anthocyanin accumulation of 13.8 CV (color value)/g-FCW (fresh cell weight) occurred on day 7 when jasmonic acid was added to the cultures at a final concentration of 20 M on day 0. This represented an 8.5-fold increase compared with the control culture in the dark. Following the continuous light irradiation of 8000 – 8300 lux, the maximum anthocyanin accumulation reached was 6.8 CV/g-FCW on day 10, which was 4.8-fold that of the control. A process that combined jasmonic acid treatment and light irradiation resulted in a significant synergistic enhancement of anthocyanin accumulation up to 22.62 CV/g-FCW on day 7. This value was 13.9-fold that of the control. As a result, the maximum anthocyanin production of 2200 CV/l was achieved on day 10, representing a 5.8-fold increase compared with the control. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Anthocyanin; Vitis inifera ; Suspension cell cultures; Elicitation; Light irradiation; Jasmonic acid www.elsevier.com/locate/plantsci 1. Introduction Anthocyanins are ubiquitous pigments in plant flow- ers, fruits, leaves and storage organs [1]. They have been used extensively as food and beverage additives to provide attractive, natural red coloration [2]. Recently, it was also found that anthocyanins inhibited the growth of cancer cells [3] and prevented the occurrence of coronary heart diseases and the fragility of capillary vessels [4]. Increased market demand has, therefore, fuelled the development of techniques for the large- scale production of anthocyanins, in particular those of natural origin due to restrictions in the use of synthetic colorants. Production of anthocyanins by plant cell culture has been suggested as a feasible technology that has attracted considerable industrial and academic in- terest in the past two decades [5]. In plant cell culture, considerable effort has been directed toward the im- provement of anthocyanin biosynthesis for achieving an economically viable process for commercial applica- tions. Significant progress has been made in the en- hancements of both productivity and yield of anthocyanins in a number of plant cell cultures through strain improvement, optimization of media and culture conditions, novel bioreactor design and intelligent pro- cess design [5]. However, both the yield and productiv- ity achieved are still far from the full potential of anthocyanin biosynthesis by plant cell cultures, and are currently not high enough to support a commercial process. One of the most efficient strategies for further im- proving anthocyanin biosynthesis is to develop an inte- grated process that rationally combines the effects of various system and enhancement strategies. In Gossyp - ium arboreum cell cultures, Choi et al. [6] have devel- oped such a process with the simultaneous use of plant cell immobilization, permeabilization, and elicitation. This process enhanced the productivity of gossypol (an antifungal agent) over 20-fold higher than batch cul- ture. Sajc et al. [7] reported another integrated process * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-8-8204-5053; fax: +61-8-8277- 0085. E-mail address: wei.zhang@flinders.edu.au (W. Zhang). 0168-9452/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0168-9452(01)00586-6