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Turkish Journal of Botany

Author ORCID Identifier

AZRA SABOORA: 0000-0003-1691-0511

DOI

10.55730/1300-008X.2811

Abstract

The medicinal properties of narcissus plants are attributed to the presence of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. Elicitors, such as nanoparticles, are employed to enhance the production of secondary metabolites through signaling and the generation of reactive oxygen species. We investigated the effects of Fe3 O4 nanoparticles (Fe3 O4 -NPs), trans-cinnamic acid (tCA), and L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) precursors on various physiological and biochemical parameters in Narcissus tazetta L., with a particular focus on alkaloid content. Fe3 O4 - NPs treatment significantly increased photosynthetic pigments, secondary metabolites (including alkaloids, phenolic compounds), total soluble carbohydrates, and polysaccharides. The activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, POD), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), and tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL) enhanced under Fe3 O4 -NPs treatment. While tCA treatment led to an increase in H2 O2 level, L-Phe treatment decreased it. Both elicitors influenced the plant’s metabolism, promoting primary and secondary metabolites. The augmentation of photosynthetic pigment content and antioxidant enzyme activity induced by tCA and L-Phe treatments appeared to improve alkaloid production. Furthermore, in silico studies using Molegro Virtual Docker (MVD) software were conducted. The third structures of PAL and N4OMT enzymes were designed by Modeler software and the ligand structures were designed using ChemDraw® (Fe3 O4 ) and Atomsk (precursors) software. Docking results revealed that the Fe3 O4 -NPs and precursors interacted with the active sites of PAL and N4OMT, two enzymes involved in alkaloid biosynthesis in narcissus, exhibiting varying binding energies and impacting their activities. The Fe3 O4 /N4OMT and L-phenylalanine/PAL complexes had higher free energies of binding. Our results indicated that Fe3 O4 -NPs and precursors significantly affected the gene expressions of PAL and N4OMT. The highest levels of PAL (after 96 h) and N4OMT (after 24 h) expressions were obtained in tCA + Fe3 O4 -NPs and L-Phe + Fe3 O4 -NPs treatments. In summary, the application of Fe3 O4 -NPs, tCA, and L-Phe demonstrated the potential to activate the production of secondary metabolites, including alkaloids, by modulating the plant’s metabolic pathways.

Keywords

Alkaloids, elicitor, Fe3O4-NPs, N. tazetta L., N4OMT gene expression, PAL

First Page

211

Last Page

234

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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