Establishment of in vitro root cultures and hairy roots of Dioscorea composita for diosgenin production

Abstract

Diosgenin is the primary precursor for the chemical synthesis of progesterone and cortisone. This secondary metabolite can be obtained from plants of the Dioscorea genus. At the industrial level, the propagation of these plants is typically carried out using conventional field techniques and in vitro plant tissue culture. Although significant efforts have been made in recent decades to improve in vitro culture processes and achieve large-scale production of Dioscorea plants, large-scale production of diosgenin continues to pose a challenge at the industrial level. In this context, this study investigates diosgenin production from D. composita through two strategies: the induction of roots under in vitro conditions with IBA and the transformation of D. composita mediated by Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Both strategies led to the identification and quantification of diosgenin, with the highest content observed in extracts from transformed roots (2.239 mg g−1). To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have used native Mexican wild species, such as D. composita, for these purposes.