Various strategies have been used to increase the efficiency of secondary metabolite production in Salvia plants. This report is the first to examine the spontaneous development of Salvia bulleyana shoots transformed by Agrobacterium rhizogenes on hairy roots and the influence of light conditions on the phytochemical profile of this shoot culture. The transformed shoots were cultivated on solid MS medium with 0.1 mg/L of IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) and 1 mg/L of m-Top (meta-topolin), and their transgenic characteristic was confirmed by PCR-based detection of the rolB and rolC genes in the target plant genome. This study assessed the phytochemical, morphological, and physiological responses of the shoot culture under stimulation by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with different wavelengths (white, WL; blue, B; red, RL; and red/blue, ML) and under fluorescent lamps (FL, control). Eleven polyphenols identified as phenolic acids and their derivatives were detected via ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-DAD/ESI-MS) in the plant material, and their content was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Rosmarinic acid was the predominant compound in the analyzed extracts. The mixed red and blue LEDs gave the highest levels of polyphenol and rosmarinic acid accumulation (respectively, 24.3 mg/g of DW and 20.0 mg/g of DW), reaching two times greater concentrations of polyphenols and three times greater rosmarinic acid levels compared to the aerial parts of two-year-old intact plants. Similar to WL, ML also stimulated regeneration ability and biomass accumulation effectively. However, the highest total photosynthetic pigment production (1.13 mg/g of DW for total chlorophyll and 0.231 mg/g of DW for carotenoids) was found in the shoots cultivated under RL followed by BL, while the culture exposed to BL was characterized as having the highest antioxidant enzyme activities.
Keywords: Agrobacterium rhizogenes; LEDs; Salvia bulleyana; light treatment; rosmarinic acid; salvianolic acid K; transformed shoots.