Increased vincristine production from Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 induced shooty teratomas of Catharanthus roseus G. Don.

Dimeric indole alkaloids are used extensively for cancer therapy. Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 strain was used for induction of shooty teratoma in Catharanthus roseus using epicotyl and stem node explants. The transformed nature of shooty teratomas was confirmed by nopaline assay. Growth kinetics of shooty teratomas depicted maximum growth during 21-24 days of culture. Dimeric alkaloid vincristine in the transformed cultures was present at a concentration of 0.011 that was tenfold higher compared to untransformed control cultures.