Plant Molecular Biology Reporter

, Volume 34, Issue 3, pp 681–689 | Cite as

Expression of Withania somnifera Steroidal Glucosyltransferase gene Enhances Withanolide Content in Hairy Roots

  • Vibha Pandey
  • Rakesh Srivastava
  • Nehal Akhtar
  • Jyoti Mishra
  • Pratibha Mishra
  • Praveen C. Verma
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

In Withania somnifera, sterol molecules of immense medicinal value are diversified by means of glycosylation. Identifying sterol glycosyltransferases provides an imperative insight of diverse sterol modifications, thereby helping to comprehend the underlying plant mechanisms. In the present study, one of the W. somnifera sterol glycosyltransferase-4 (Ws-Sgtl4) gene was transformed into the W. somnifera leaf explant through Agrobacterium rhizogene. Transformed W. Somnifera Ws-Sgtl4 leaf explants were subjected to hairy root induction and analyzed for biomass accumulation. The analysis of Ws-Sgtl4 gene expression was performed at different time exposures with the application of salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate. The elicitation of W. somnifera hairy root expressing the Ws-Sgtl4 gene was also evaluated for the enhancement if any, in the total withanolide yield as well as the withanolides-A contents. The results suggested that Ws-Sgtl4 gene expression enhanced the production of total withanolide yield and withanolides-A in the hairy root culture of W. somnifera in the response to the elicitors.

Keywords

Sterol glycosyltransferases Withanolides Stress Gene expression Hairy root culture 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Director, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India, for providing the research facilities.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Supplementary material

11105_2015_955_MOESM1_ESM.docx (18 kb)
Table S1 Primer used in the experiments. (DOCX 17 kb)
11105_2015_955_MOESM2_ESM.pptx (513 kb)
Fig. S1 Domain analysis and phylogenetic relationship of Ws-SGTL4 proteins among various members of the plants. (PPTX 513 kb)
11105_2015_955_MOESM3_ESM.pptx (611 kb)
Fig. S2 Alignment between Arabidopsis thaliana and W. somnifera Sterol glycosyltransferases proteins. (PPTX 611 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Vibha Pandey
    • 1
  • Rakesh Srivastava
    • 1
  • Nehal Akhtar
    • 1
  • Jyoti Mishra
    • 1
  • Pratibha Mishra
    • 1
  • Praveen C. Verma
    • 1
  1. 1.Plant Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering DivisionCSIR-National Botanical Research InstituteLucknowIndia

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