Production of resveratrol from Vitis (L.) plant cell suspension culture using stirred tank reactor

Plant cell suspension culture (PCSC) are favorable for scaling up production due to their faster growth cycles, the opportunity to control the supply of nutrients and the high degree of uniformity between individual cells. Hence, the purpose of the study was to (1) conceptually design a process applicable to t-resveratrol production using V. labrusca (L.) cv. Isabel and V. vinifera (L.) cv. Öküzgözü species, and (2) optimize the parameters such as the media composition, the aeration rate, the speed of mixing, and the use of elicitors for the scale-up process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study performed on the optimization of plant cell suspension culture, scale-up studies, and t-resveratrol production using Vitis labrusca (L.) cv. Isabel. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA-100µM) and ß-Cyclodextrin (ß-CD-50mM) were introduced into CSCs as elicitors. The biomass of both species, when cells were treated with MeJA, decreased based on the biomass reached in control cells. The results indicated that they could not work synergistically to improve the production of t-resveratrol. The highest amount of t-resveratrol in V. labrusca cv. Isabel CSC was found to be 6.78 mg/L (intracellular) and 28.23 mg/L (extracellular), whereas in V. Vinifera cv. Öküzgözü CSC it was found to be 84.8 mg/L (extracellular) via HPLC. V. labrusca cv. Isabel cells were scaled up from shake-flasks to a 6 L stirred tank reactor (STR) under the controlled conditions of batch culture. Setting the mixing to 75 rpm, and the initial aeration rate to 0.02 vvm and with the presence of casein hydrolysate (CH) in media led to the highest biomass of 11.8 g DW/3L (5th day) representing 4.52-fold higher biomass from the initial inoculation, whereas without CH in media, the highest biomass was revealed as 13.1 g DW/3L (8th day) representing 5.02-fold increase. Experiments conducted in a flask with CH in the media revealed the biomass increase to 14.57 g DW/L (11th day), whereas without CH, 14.48 g DW/L (9th day) biomass was obtained. t-resveratrol production in STR with or without CH supplementation was found to be around 4 mg/L and 6 mg/L respectively. Besides, in response to light, accumulation of biomass and t-resveratrol were found to be 300 g FW /3L and 23.26 mg/L respectively. This study based on improvement in resveratrol production from Vitis CSC will shed light on future studies.