Background: Plant cell suspension culture of Vitis vinifera is a promising technology for investigating different factors that are able to induce and/or modify stilbenes biosynthesis. Jasmonates have been reported to play an important role in a signal transduction pathway that regulates defence responses as well as the production of secondary metabolites. In this study, 2, 3-dihydroxypropyl jasmonate (DHPJA) was used to investigate its effect on stimulating trans-resveratrol (t-R) accumulation and the plant defence responses in Vitis vinifera cv. Kyoho cell suspension cultures for the first time.

Results: It demonstrated that DHPJA had superior effects on stilbenoids accumulation over methyl jasmonate (MeJA). The optimal condition was 150 μM DHPJA added on day 15 of cultivation period, with the highest level of t-R accumulation which was increased 1.8-fold and 1.3-fold compared with the control and 150 μM MeJA respectively. DHPJA induced stronger plant defence responses, including oxidative burst and activation of L-phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) than MeJA. H₂O₂ generation induced by DHPJA played a significant role in enhancing t-R accumulation. Adding a specific inhibitor of H₂O₂ signalling pathway inhibited DHPJA-induced t-R accumulation, but had no effects on DHPJA-induced other metabolites accumulation, which resulted in regulations of product diversity.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that DHPJA was an efficient elicitor to enhance t-R accumulation by activating stronger oxidative burst, and H₂O₂ signalling pathway could regulate product diversity in DHPJA-induced V. vinifera cv. Kyoho cell suspension cultures.