Morphometric and biochemical characterization of red beet (Beta vulgaris L.) hairy roots obtained after single and double transformations

It is known that T-DNA of Agrobacterium rhizogenes affects processes of plant development and activates the synthesis of secondary metabolites in transformed plant cells. In the present investigation, we provide evidence that different strains of A. rhizogenes significantly affect morphometric, morphological and functional characteristics of hairy roots of red beet (Beta vulgaris L.). Infection with four strains of A. rhizogenes (A4, A 2/83, A 20/83 and LMG-150) resulted in ten clones of hairy roots, which were named accordingly as A4(1), A4(2), A4(3), A 2/83(1), A 2/83(2), A 2/83(3), A 20/83(1), A 20/83(2), A 20/83(3) and LMG-150. Their growth characteristics, pigment content, levels of endogenous auxin and T-DNA copy number showed significant differences probably due to the physiological status of the host cell rather than the T-DNA copy number. Although A 2/83 showed highest hairy root induction capacity, the best hairy root clone was obtained with strain LMG-150 that produced highest biomass and pigments. In this root clone, the enzyme peroxidase was found involved in altering the endogenous auxin pool. When root clone LMG-150 was re-transformed to insert additional individual rol genes, two double transformed clones were obtained, one for rolABC and the other for rolC gene where the former produced higher biomass and betalaine than the latter. Despite the established fact that rol genes of T-DNA influence endogenous phytohormones, no direct correlation among the single transformants and the double transformants was found. This is the first report, in our knowledge, where a hairy root clone has been used to obtain double transformants.