Rooting of cuttings of Passiflora suberosa, a medicinal passion fruit species: characterization and modulation by external biochemical factors

Passiflora suberosa L. (Passifloraceae) can be found throughout the Americas, and has several medicinal properties, including antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-hemolytic, hypolipidemic, and hypoglycemic activities. Germination rates of P. suberosa are low, even with dormancy breaking treatments, posing an obstacle for its multiplication. Vegetative propagation is a valuable approach to produce clones of elite individuals with important pharmacological characteristics, affording fast genetic improvement of biomass source for both phytomedicine manufacturing and bioactive compound isolation. Understanding the rooting process of this species is an important step to exploit its full potential in a sustainable way. We investigated adventitious rooting (AR) in absence or presence of exogenous auxin in P. suberosa cuttings, using a non-aerated hydroponic system. Changes in concentration of flavonoids, phenolics, hexoses, starch, and auxin, as well as peroxidase activity, were monitored along AR. Cuttings showed spontaneous rooting, although the application of exogenous indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) yielded higher number of shorter roots. Biochemical parameters, mainly concentration of carbohydrates and total phenolics, as well as peroxidase activity, varied along the course of the experiments. Based on these results, attempts were made to up- or down-modulate rooting responses by applying putative regulators to the growth solution at different time points. It was possible to block the positive effect of auxin on root development, with only minor positive impacts on the modulated control devoid of auxin. Overall analyses suggested that the rooting system proved effective and specific peroxidase activity showed partial correlation with AR, being able to suffer modulation by culture solution factors.