## 1 Introduction  
_Sarracenia_ _purpura_ L. is a carnivorous plant that remains an interesting ornamental species. Importantly, it contains many valuable compounds. _S. purpura_ L. is well known as a Cree medicinal plant [1]. The plants from the genus _Sarracenia_ have been found to possess antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiviral and antibacterial constituents [1, 2, 3], including sarracenin [4], betulinic acid, ursolic [1], hyperoside (quercetin-3-O-galactoside), morroniside [5] and many others (data as below in Section 3.4).  
The problem of the increasing incidence of cancer, bacterial and viral diseases and antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria, as well as the lack of effective treatment methods for cancers entail serious consequences for human life and health. An important area of research focuses on seeking new therapies for diseases and therapeutic compounds that would be safe and easily available. Genetic engineering techniques offer an alternative and increasingly more common solution allowing for the precise modification of organisms' traits, including those of plants.  
As hairy root cultures are a promising method for the production of interesting secondary metabolites in plants [6] and can be applied for the enhanced synthesis of bioactive compounds, the aim of this study was to establish the tissue culture of _S. purpura_ L. plants and transform them via the agorinfection method with an _Agrobacteriumrium rhizosphere_ strain.  
It should be pointed out that hairy root cultures are aseptic and they are characterized by high genetic stability and a high growth rate without the addition of any plant growth regulators [7; 8]. Thus, these cultures can be considered tools for plant physiology and interaction analysis, e.g., allepolpathy [9], or for the production of medical compounds, e.g., heterologous proteins. An example is a human tissue plasminogen activator produced in the hairy roots of oriental melon (_Cucumis melo_ L.) [10] or human gastric lipase produced in _Arabidopsis_ hairy roots [11]. Furthermore, the level of metabolites produced in hairy root cultures is often higher than that observed in the mother plant or roots. For example, it has been demonstrated that the total flavonoid content in 24-day-old Isatis tinctoria L. hairy root cultures was about 30% higher than in 2-year-old roots derived from field cultivation [12].  
Additionally, the elicitation of hairy root cultures can enhance the production of interesting compounds [7]. Another strategy may be the genetic transformation of _A. rhizogenes_ with desired genes. However, as shown in other studies, genetic transformation with the application of this bacterial strain can cause a reduction in the effectiveness of hairy root formation in plants [8]. It should be also pointed out that many plant species that remain recalcitrant to _Agrobacteriumium tumefaciens_ infection and transformation have been successfully transformed with _A. rhizogenes_. These include _Salix_ spp. L. [13], _Prunus_ spp. [14], _Populus_ spp. [15] and many others. Thus, _A. rhizogenes_ is regarded as an effective biotechnological tool of genetic engineering.  
In the present study, a wild-type strain of _A. rhizogenes_ was used for hairy root induction in _Sarracenia_ plants. _A. rhizogenes_ (syn. _Rhizobium rhizogenes_) is a Gram-negative bacterium that infects plants and transfers a fragment of the _Ri_ plasmid to the plant genome. The transfer and integration of T-DNA (containing genes encoding enzymes necessary for auxin and cytokinin synthesis) to the plant genome cause the growth of hairy roots [8].  
The study showed that it is justified to introduce genetic modifications in _Sarracenia purpurea_ L. to obtain hairy roots, as the plants display an increased accumulation of valuable compounds with pharmacological potential. To our best knowledge, this is the first report concerning the transformation of plants from the genus _Sarracenia_ with the _A. rhizogenes_ strain.