Shading effect on survival, growth, and contents of secondary metabolites in micropropagated Anoectochilus plantlets

• Published in: Revista brasileira de botânica Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 599 - 607
• Main Authors: Chen, Changli, Luo, Xiahong, Jin, Guanrong, Cheng, Zhou, Pan, Xiaoyun, Zhu, Guanlin, Li, Shan, Zhu, Yunguo, Tang, Nannan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.09.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anoectochilus; Biomass; biomass production; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Botany; Extinction; Flavonoids; Flowers & plants; growth performance; Kaempferol; leaves; Life Sciences; light intensity; Light levels; Luminous intensity; Metabolites; micropropagation; New species; Original Article; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Plantlets; Plants (botany); Propagation; Quercetin; Secondary metabolites; Shade; Shading; Species extinction; Stress propagation; Survival; survival rate; Tissue culture; Shadow culture; Active ingredient; Full sunlight; Jinxianlian; High PAR stress; Dry mass
• ISSN: 0100-8404; 1806-9959
• DOI: 10.1007/s40415-017-0365-4

Many Anoectochilus plants are now facing extinction; hence, they are propagated mainly from tissue culture. However, growth performance and secondary metabolites have not been fully identified on tissue-cultured plantlets from multiple Anoectochilus species under shading. In the present study, five Anoectochilus species [ A. roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl., Fu_1; A. koshuaensis Hayata, Fu_2; A. formosanus Hayata, Tai; un-identified species of Fu_New_1 and Fu_New_2] were generated from micropropagated plantlets and cultured under shade treatments of three levels (mean light intensities: mild, ~2000 Lx; medium, ~800 Lx; intensive, ~440 Lx) for five months. Among the five Anoectochilus species, the Tai and Fu_New_1 species had the highest survival rate and the Tai species had the best performance of stem morphology and foliar kaempferol content in the medium shade treatment, but it had fewer leaves and lower ratio of quercetin/kaempferol than the Fu_1 species. The Fu_New_2 species had the greatest biomass accumulation and highest content of total flavonoids, especially under the mild shade treatment. Therefore, among the Anoectochilus species tested in this study, A. formosanus is suggested to be used in continuous propagation, A. roxburghii is suggested to be planted in stressed environment, and the new species of Fu_New_2 is suggested to be planted for the production of flavonoids. Mild and medium levels of shading are suggested to be used when biomass production and fast growing are needed for Anoectochilus plantlets, respectively.