The present study investigated the changes in the content of steroids and triterpenoids in C. officinalis hairy root cultures and plants exposed to cadmium stress. The observed effects included the content and composition of analyzed groups of compounds, particularly the proportions among individual sterols (e.g., stigmasterol-to-sitosterol ratio), their ester and glycoside conjugates. The total sterol content increased in roots (by 30%) and hairy root culture (by 44%), whereas it decreased in shoots (by 15%); moreover, these effects were inversely correlated with Cd-induced growth suppression. Metabolic alterations of sterols and their forms seemed to play a greater role in the response to Cd stress in roots than in shoots. The symptoms of the competition between general metabolites (sterols) and specialized metabolites (triterpenoids) were also observed, i.e., the increase of the sterol biosynthesis parallel to the decrease of the triterpenoid content in C. officinalis plant roots and hairy root culture, and the inverse phenomenon in shoots. The similarity of the metabolic modifications observed in the present study on C. officinalis plant roots and hairy roots confirmed the possibility of application of plant in vitro cultures in initial studies for physiological research on plant response to environmental stresses.
Keywords: Calendula officinalis; abiotic stress; hairy roots; sterols; triterpenoids.