Five year maintenance of the inducible expression of anthranilate synthase in Catharanthus roseus hairy roots.

Transgenic hairy root cultures have the potential to be an industrial production platform for a variety of chemicals. This report demonstrates the long-term stability of a transgenic Catharanthus roseus hairy root line containing the inducible expression of a feedback-insensitive anthranilate synthase (AS). After 5 years in liquid culture, the presence of the inserted AS gene was confirmed by genomic PCR. The inducible expression of AS was confirmed by enzyme assay and by changes in terpenoid indole alkaloid concentrations. This report also demonstrates that it may take as long as 2 years for the metabolite profile to stabilize.