Variability in tissue cultures of Choisya ternata. Alkaloid accumulation in protoclones and aggregate clones obtained from established strains.

Protoclones and aggregate clones have been prepared from 5 callus strains of C. ternata chosen for their dihydrofuroquinoline-accumulating capacities in a population of well-established strains. The results show that it is possible to obtain cell lines which accumulate higher alkaloid contents than the highest alkaloid-producing strain; the probability of obtaining a high-producing clone is greater if a high-producing strain is chosen as the parent strain for cloning. Compared to the alkaloid content of the whole plant, one alkaloid (platydesminium) could be obtained in greater amounts in some clones, but another alkaloid (balfourodinium) was always found in lesser quantities, even in the clones which accumulated most alkaloids. Aggregate clones were easier to obtain than protoclones and alkaloid production was rather unstable in all the clones. The protoplast-cloning procedure was not more efficient than the aggregate-cloning procedure for the selection of high-alkaloid producing lines.