Abstract:We investigated the role of Ca2+ in the MeJA-induced biosynthesis of triterpenoid by treating suspending cells of Betula platyphylla with CaCl2, MeJA and combining with inhibitors of Ca2+. MeJA could promote the synthesis of total triterpenes and oleanolic acid in the cells significantly, which, respectively reached the peak of 46.90 and 1.31 mg·g-1 after 48 hours’ treatment. The induction effect of MeJA decreased after treating by MeJA+EGTA and MeJA+LaCl3·7H2O. The accumulation amount of oleanolic acid were still higher than that of the control. By analyzing the activity of defense enzyme, the activities of CAT, PAL, APX were enhanced after treated by CaCl2 and MeJA+CaCl2, while the SOD was inhibited by Ca2+. After adding two inhibitors of Ca2+, all enzymes were effected significantly. The expression of key enzyme genes in the triterpene pathway such as FPS, SS, SE, BPW, BPY BPX2 was significantly upregulated after two hours’ MeJA treatment. The expression of BPW was reduced after two hours’ treating with MeJA+LaCl3·7H2O. The expression of BPY, BPX2, SS and SE regulated by MeJA+LaCl3·7H2O were higher than those treated by MeJA. Meanwhile the expression of BPW, BPX2, SS, SE and FPS were down-regulated at two hours after MeJA+EGTA treatment compared with MeJA treatment. Therefore, Ca2+ played a role in triterpenoid biosynthesis induced by MeJA, but two Ca2+ inhibitors had different effect and mechanism in triterpenoid biosynthesis.