Enhanced stress tolerance in transformed Ajuga bracteosa Wall. ex Benth. regenerants by upregulated gene expression of metabolic pathways

The rol oncogenes of Agrobacterium rhizogenes enhance the production of medicinally important compounds in plants and provide a first barrier against the overproduction of reactive oxygen species during biotic and abiotic stress. This study was designed to evaluate the expression of genes involved in biosynthetic pathways and their impact on metabolic contents and environmental stress tolerance in regenerated Ajuga bracteosa Wall. ex Benth. After successful transformation, real-time quantitative PCR confirmed the increased expression (1.94–6.59-fold) of HMGR, HDS, FDS, PAL, and TTG1 genes in transgenic lines. Furthermore, GC-MS coupled with principal component analysis revealed diverse concentrations of 97 metabolites in A. bracteosa.