Abstract

Biotechnology has become an important tool to produce plant secondary metabolites and proteases are among them. Although pineapple plants have been found to produce proteases, most of the biotechnological investigations on this crop have been focused on propagation. The procedure involving the use of temporary immersion bioreactors is one of the most outstanding because of its high multiplication rate. We previously recorded specific protease activity in the culture medium during the pre-elongation step of this protocol. Therefore we decided to modify this phase, looking for an increase of protease excretion. Three independent experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of culture duration, and levels of gibberellic acid (GA) and 6-benzyladenine (BA). The following indicators were recorded: shoot fresh mass per bioreactor; and protein concentration, proteolytic activity, and specific protease activity in culture media. As happens in investigations focused on protease production, the specific protease activity was the most important indicator recorded here. It maximized at 21 d of culture. Moreover, GA (4.2 muM) increased specific activity in the culture medium while BA produced a negative effect. Results shown here demonstrate that conditions adequate for propagation purposes (15-d pre-elongation phase; 2.8 muM GA; 2.2 muM BA) are not necessarily adequate for protease excretion.