Cloning And Functional Analysis Of Salidroside Biosynthesis Related Genes In Rhodiola Sachalinensis

The genus Rhodiola L consists of nearly 90 species and nearly 70 species inChina. The Rhodiola sachalinensis is found in the northern parts of China, which isa cherish plant for medicinal materials. Salidroside and tyrosol are functionalcomponents identi?ed in a number of plants Rhodiola L. such as R. crenulata, R.fastigiata, R. kirilowii and R. saccharinensis. As one of the active components of thearctic root (Rhodiola sachalinensis), salidroside is suggested to function as anadaptogen, i.e. a biologically-active compound that is supposed to increaseresistance in humans to different stress-related disorders and a variety of ailments ordiseases. For example, salidroside has been reported to act as an anti-in?ammatory,anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-aging, anti-oxygen deficiency, anti-fatigue, anti-radiation,double-regulation and other new action mechanism compounds. But there are threepuzzles which should be solved in the process of research and utilization of theseplants. Characteristics of reproductive ecology produce endangered stages, thesystem research of the plant is poor and the over utilization lead to the destroy ofecology environment.Uridine diphosphate (UDP) glycosyltransferases (UGTs) mediate the transferof glycosyl residues from activated nucleotide sugars to acceptor molecules(aglycones), thus regulating properties of the acceptors such as their bioactivity,solubility and transport within the cell and throughout the organism. AUDP-glucosyltransferase cDNA gene was successfully isolated from Rhodiolasachalinensis and named as UGT1 with 1598 bp (GenBank accessionnumber:AY547304), which encodes a predicted polypeptide of 480 amino acids with53.87 kDa and pI 5.40 and contains only one possible transmembrane domains atamino-terminus. Phylogenetic tree analysis of the UGTs showed that it sharesgreater similarity with the other plant UGTs (24.23-54.24%). Carboxy-terminus ofdeduced amino acid sequence includes a part of the glucosyltransferase signaturesequence and has 44%-72% identity to other plant UDP-glucosyltransfereses withhighly homologous similarity to UDP-glucose: salicylic acid-inducibleglucosyltransferases. Amino-terminal consensus sequence showed 62% to 68%identity with the known salicylate-induced and phenylpropanoid: glucosyltransferasehomologs. Thus, it was indicated that UGT1 might function as aUDP-glucosyltransferase. Southern blot analysis with a UGT1 specific fragment asprobe showed that one copy of UGT1 gene in Rhodiola sachalinensis. The RNA gelblot analysis showed a different UGT1 expression patterns among the differentorgans at mRNA level with abundant in callus but none in leaves. The determinationof salidroside in callus and leaves of Rhodiola sachalinensis by HPLC showed...