Response of root cultures and in vitro-grown plantlets systems of Hypericum perforatum L. to biotic and abiotic stress

Plants are sessile organisms in environments inhabited by living beings potentially dangerous to them (pathogens or phytophages) (biotic stress); moreover, they are subjected to stress caused by non-living factors depending on climate conditions (abiotic stress). For these reasons, they had to evolve specific mechanisms to detect and consequently act against complex stress combinations. In the present work, the effect of biotic and abiotic stress on Hypericum perforatum roots was evaluated, administering chitosan oligosaccharides (COS), methyl jasmonate (MeJA), salicylic acid (SA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As). This project had both applicative and basic purposes: biotic elicitors may be used in order to stimulate secondary bioactive metabolite biosynthesis for drug production and to elucidate the influence of shoot/root interaction on elicitor perception in H. perforatum; the treatment with toxic metals could help in understanding the processes that occurs when H. perforatum grows on polluted soils.