Piriformospora indica based elicitation for overproduction of phenolic compounds by hairy root cultures of Ficus carica

Ficus carica L. is an important source of phenolic and flavonoid compounds with valuable pharmaceutical application across various diseases. The current study was carried out to investigate the influence Piriformospora indica elicitation on growth, production compounds, antioxidant capacity, expression level biosynthetic pathway genes in hairy root (HR) cultures F. carica. maximum improvement accumulation observed when HR culture exposed 2% filtrate P. for 72 h: gallic acid (80.5- fold), caffeic (26.2-fold), coumaric (4.5-fold), cinnamic (60.1-fold), apigenin (27.6-fold) rutin (5.7-fold). While highest levels chlorogenic (4.9-fold) quercetin (8.8-fold) were obtained after 48 h cell extract at 6% (v/v), respectively. analysis revealed that exposure fungal elicitors resulted up-regulation phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), UDP-glucose 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT) MYB3 transcription factor. This shows potential as efficacious elicitor enhancing secondary metabolites by HRs.