Department of Oriental Medicinal Materials and Processing, College of Life Science, Kyung Hee University, Seocheon, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 446-701, South Korea.
Department of Oriental Medicinal Materials and Processing, College of Life Science, Kyung Hee University, Seocheon, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 446-701, South Korea.
Gene. 2014 Feb 15;536(1):186-92. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2013.07.077. Epub 2013 Aug 24.
Glycosyltransferases are members of the multigene family of plants that can transfer single or multiple activated sugars to a range of plant molecules, resulting in the glycosylation of plant compounds. Although the activities of many glycosyltransferases and their products have been recognized for a long time, only in recent years were some glycosyltransferase genes identified and few have been functionally characterized in detail. Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer), belonging to Araliaceae, has been well known as a popular mysterious medicinal herb in East Asia for over 2,000 years. A total of 704 glycosyltransferase unique sequences have been found from a ginseng expressed sequence tag (EST) library, and these sequences encode enzymes responsible for the secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Finally, twelve UDP glycosyltransferases (UGTs) were selected as the candidates most likely to be involved in triterpenoid synthesis. In this study, we classified the candidate P. ginseng UGTs (PgUGTs) into proper families and groups, which resulted in eight UGT families and six UGT groups. We also investigated those gene candidates encoding for glycosyltransferases by analysis of gene expression in methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-treated ginseng adventitious roots and different tissues from four-year-old ginseng using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). For organ-specific expression, most of PgUGT transcription levels were higher in leaves and roots compared with flower buds and stems. The transcription of PgUGTs in adventitious roots treated with MeJA increased as compared with the control. PgUGT1 and PgUGT2, which belong to the UGT71 family genes expressed in MeJA-treated adventitious roots, were especially sensitive, showing 33.32 and 38.88-fold expression increases upon 24h post-treatments, respectively.
糖基转移酶是植物多基因家族的成员，能够将单个或多个活化的糖转移到一系列植物分子上，从而使植物化合物发生糖基化。尽管许多糖基转移酶及其产物的活性已经被认识了很长时间，但直到最近才鉴定出一些糖基转移酶基因，并且很少有被详细地进行功能表征。人参（Panax ginseng Meyer）属于五加科，作为一种在东亚广受欢迎的神秘药用植物，已经有 2000 多年的历史了。从人参表达序列标签（EST）文库中总共发现了 704 种独特的糖基转移酶序列，这些序列编码负责次生代谢物生物合成的酶。最后，选择了 12 种 UDP 糖基转移酶（UGTs）作为最有可能参与三萜合成的候选者。在这项研究中，我们将候选的人参 UGTs（PgUGTs）分类为适当的家族和组，结果分为 8 个 UGT 家族和 6 个 UGT 组。我们还通过分析茉莉酸甲酯（MeJA）处理的人参不定根和四年生人参不同组织中的基因表达，研究了那些编码糖基转移酶的基因候选物。对于器官特异性表达，与花蕾和茎相比，PgUGT 的转录水平在叶片和根中更高。与对照相比，用 MeJA 处理的不定根中的 PgUGT 转录增加。属于 UGT71 家族基因的 PgUGT1 和 PgUGT2 在 MeJA 处理的不定根中表达，尤其敏感，分别在 24 小时后表达增加 33.32 倍和 38.88 倍。
