Galactinol synthase (GolS) genes play important roles in plant response to abiotic stress. In this research, the plant expression vector of soybean GmGolS2-2 gene was constructed and transformed into tobacco to study the drought tolerance of transgenic tobacco. A GmGolS2-2 gene with 975 bp coding sequence was cloned from soybean leaves by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). GmGolS2-2 was linked to the plant expression vector pRI101 by restriction enzyme sites Nde Ⅰ and EcoR Ⅰ, and transformed into tobacco by leaf disc method. Genomic DNA PCR and real-time PCR showed that three GmGolS2-2 transgenic tobacco plants were obtained. The growth status of GmGolS2-2 transgenic tobacco under drought stress was better than that of wild-type tobacco. After drought stress treatment, the electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content of transgenic tobacco were lower than those of wild-type tobacco, but the proline content and soluble sugar content were higher than those of wild-type tobacco. The results of real-time PCR showed that the heterologous expression of GmGolS2-2 increased the expression of stress-related genes NtERD10C and NtAQP1 in transgenic tobacco. The above results indicated that GmGolS2-2 improved drought resistance of transgenic tobacco.
Drought Resistance ; Tobacco/genetics* ; Soybeans/genetics* ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Plants, Genetically Modified/genetics* ; Stress, Physiological/genetics* ; Droughts ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

Autophagy is a highly conserved mechanism for material degradation and recycling in eukaryote cells, and plays important roles in growth, development, stress tolerance and immune responses. ATG10 plays a key role in autophagosome formation. To understand the function of ATG10 in soybean, two homologous GmATG10 genes, namely GmATG10a and GmATG10b, were silenced simultaneously by bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) induced gene silencing. The carbon starvation induced by dark treatment and Western blotting analysis of GmATG8 accumulation level indicated that concurrent silencing GmATG10a/10b resulted in the impairment of autophagy in soybean; disease resistance and kinase assays demonstrated that GmATG10a/10b participated in the immune responses by negatively regulating the activation of GmMPK3/6, indicating that GmATG10a/10b plays a negative regulatory role in immune response in soybean.
Soybeans/genetics* ; Immunity

Galactinol synthase (GolS) is a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) and plays an important role in plant responses to abiotic stresses. However, the molecular characteristics of the GolS family members in soybean was not well-known. In this study, six members of GmGolS gene family were genome-widely identified, and their physicochemical properties, chromosomal localization, evolutionary relationship, gene structure, conserved motifs, secondary structure, tertiary structure, tissue-specific expression patterns and the expression levels under salt and drought stresses were analyzed. The results showed that six soybean GolS genes were unevenly distributed on four chromosomes, the range of the isoelectric points of six GmGolS proteins was 5.45-6.08, the molecular weight range was 37 567.07-38 817.59 Da, and the number of amino acids was 324-339 aa. The results of subcellular localization showed that 4 proteins were located in the chloroplast, and 2 proteins in the cytoplasm. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the members of the soybean GolS gene family were closely adjacent to each other, and were evolutionarily conservative. Six gene members contain 3 or 4 exons. Prediction of secondary and tertiary structures showed that the spatial structure of proteins of all family members was mainly composed of α-helix and random coil structure, with less β-turn and extended chain structure. Tissue-specific expression analysis showed that six GmGolS members expressed to variable degrees in seeds, roots, root hairs, flowers, stems, pods, nodules and leaves. Expression analysis based on qRT-PCR showed that all GmGolS genes showed different degrees of up-regulated expression under salt and drought treatment, indicating that these genes may be related to the response of plants to salt-tolerance and drought-resistance. These results may facilitate subsequent functional analysis of soybean GolS genes.
Droughts ; Soybeans/genetics* ; Phylogeny ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Stress, Physiological/genetics* ; Plants/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

Stearoyl-ACP Δ⁹ desaturase (SAD) catalyzes the synthesis of monounsaturated oleic acid or palmitoleic acid in plastids. SAD is the key enzyme to control the ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids in plant cells. In order to analyze the regulation mechanism of soybean oleic acid synthesis, soybean (Glycine max) GmSAD family members were genome-wide identified, and their conserved functional domains and physicochemical properties were also analyzed by bioinformatics tools. The spatiotemporal expression profile of each member of GmSADs was detected by qRT-PCR. The expression vectors of GmSAD5 were constructed. The enzyme activity and biological function of GmSAD5 were examined by Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression in Nicotiana tabacum leaves and genetic transformation of oleic acid-deficient yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) mutant BY4389. Results show that the soybean genome contains five GmSAD family members, all encoding an enzyme protein with diiron center and two conservative histidine enrichment motifs (EENRHG and DEKRHE) specific to SAD enzymes. The active enzyme protein was predicted as a homodimer. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that five GmSADs were divided into two subgroups, which were closely related to AtSSI2 and AtSAD6, respectively. The expression profiles of GmSAD members were significantly different in soybean roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds at different developmental stages. Among them, GmSAD5 expressed highly in the middle and late stages of developmental seeds, which coincided with the oil accumulation period. Transient expression of GmSAD5 in tobacco leaves increased the oleic acid and total oil content in leaf tissue by 5.56% and 2.73%, respectively, while stearic acid content was reduced by 2.46%. Functional complementation assay in defective yeast strain BY4389 demonstrated that overexpression of GmSAD5 was able to restore the synthesis of monounsaturated oleic acid, resulting in high oil accumulation. Taken together, soybean GmSAD5 has strong selectivity to stearic acid substrates and can efficiently catalyze the biosynthesis of monounsaturated oleic acid. It lays the foundation for the study of soybean seed oleic acid and total oil accumulation mechanism, providing an excellent target for genetic improvement of oil quality in soybean.
Fatty Acid Desaturases ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Oleic Acid ; biosynthesis ; Phylogeny ; Plant Proteins ; genetics ; Seeds ; chemistry ; Soybeans ; classification ; enzymology ; genetics

To unveil genetic variations between the predominant soybean mosaic virus (SMV) strains in China and in the USA, as well as to reveal the potential relevance between the similarity of gene sequences and the virulence of the viruses, we isolated and sequenced the coat protein (CP) gene of Chinese SMV strain SC7 by RT-PCR and compared the SC7 sequence with those of SMV strains from the USA. Analysis is showed that the CP gene of SC7 was 795 nucleotides in length and encoded 265 in amino acids'. The CP gene of SC7 and those of the strains from the USA exhibited 4%-5% nucleotide diversity and 1%-2% diversity amino acids. The conserved amino-acid sequence associated with aphid spread in the USA strains was DAG, and corresponded to DAD in SC7. The virulence of SC7 was greater than that of the SMV strains from the USA. Nevertheless, no clear relationships between sequence similarity of the CP genes from different strains and their virulence on differential hosts were found.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Capsid Proteins ; genetics ; China ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Mosaic Viruses ; Soybeans ; virology ; United States

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the association of known polymorphisms in the lipid metabolic pathway with body mass index (BMI), and estimate their interactions with soybean food intake.

METHODSA community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted in a Chinese Han population. BMI, soybean food intake, and single nucleotide polymorphisms of rs599839, rs3846662, rs3846663, rs12916, rs174547, rs174570, rs4938303, and rs1558861 were measured in 944 subjects. A multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the association of the studied polymorphisms with BMIs. The expectation-maximization algorithm was employed to evaluate the extent of linkage disequilibrium between pairwise polymorphisms. The gene-environment interaction was assessed in the general multifactor dimensionality reduction model.

RESULTSThe polymorphisms of rs3846662 and rs3846663 were associated with 10% highest BMIs when comparing to the 10% lowest values both in individuals and haplotype-based association tests. Although no statistically significant gene-environment interactions were found, people with the haplotype composed of C allele in rs3846662 and T allele in rs3846663 and low frequency of soybean intake had significantly higher risk to overweight and obesity as compared with those with the haplotype consisting of T allele in rs3846662 and C allele in rs3846663 and highly frequent soybean food intake, with an odds ratio of 1.64 (95% confidence interval: 1.15-2.34, P<0.01) after adjusting for the common confounders.

CONCLUSIONOur study has suggested that rs3846662 and rs3846663 may be the potential candidate polymorphisms for obesity, and their effect on the pathogenesis could be mediated by the frequency of soybean food intake.

Adult ; Apolipoprotein B-48 ; genetics ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; genetics ; Body Mass Index ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diet ; Dyslipidemias ; genetics ; Eating ; Female ; Gene-Environment Interaction ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA Reductases ; genetics ; Lipid Metabolism ; genetics ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Overweight ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Repressor Proteins ; genetics ; Soybeans

High temperature and humidity stress during seed growth and development of spring soybean can result in seed deterioration in South China. We isolated two genes (GmSBP and GmSBPL) encoding putative SBP proteins from soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) to study their biological functions and response to abiotic stress,. The two SBP proteins are hydrophilic and incomplete membrane ones. Real-time quantitative (RT-PCR) analysis reveals that the expression of the two genes in the developing seeds of the seed deterioration resistant cultivar Xiangdou No. 3 and sensitive cultivar Ningzhen No. 1 was significantly affected by high temperature and humidity treatment. Meanwhile, the levels of sucrose and soluble sugar in the developing seeds of both cultivars were also affected under high temperature and humidity stress. During seed growth and development, the expression of the two genes as well as the levels of sucrose and soluble sugar reached the highest at 30 days after flower. GmSBP2 and GmSBPL were found to be differentially expressed in different soybean tissues. Sub-cellular localization indicated that two genes were located in cytoplasm and cell membrane. Our results indicate that GmSBP2 and GmSBPL might be involved in the response to abiotic stress, which will enrich our understanding of pre-harvest seed deterioration and resistance in soybean from one side.
China ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Genes, Plant ; Membrane Transport Proteins ; genetics ; Plant Lectins ; genetics ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Seeds ; Soybean Proteins ; genetics ; Soybeans ; genetics ; Stress, Physiological

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of soy isoflavone on obesity in the light of hypothalamus and peripheral orexigenic gene regulation.

METHODSFifty-four female rats were randomly assigned to 6 groups: one sham-operated group (SHAM), one ovariectomized (OVX) control group, three OVX groups fed with 400 ppm (L-SI), 1200 ppm (M-SI) and 3600 ppm (H-SI) isoflavone respectively, and one OVX group receiving 0.45 ppm diethylstilbestrol (EC). All rats were allowed to take high-fat diet for 4 weeks. Some neuropeptides were measured by RT-PCR. These neuropeptides included NPY, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART), orexin, melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH), melanin-concentrating hormone precursor (P-MCH), ghrelin, and leptin.

RESULTSCompared with the OVX control group, the body weight and food intake in the H-SI group were reduced significantly and there was a significant dose-dependent manner in the 3 isoflavone groups. The results of RT-PCR showed that the NPY level in the 3 isoflavone groups was significantly increased and the POMC/CART gene expression decreased significantly in rats' hypothalamus compared with that in the OVX control group. However, the expression of orexin, MCH and P-MCH had no change. The peripheral grelin mRNA expression was higher in the 3 isoflavone groups, while leptin gene expression in the fat was not consistent.

CONCLUSIONSThis research showed that isoflavone could prevent obesity induced by high-fat diet and ovariectomy through regulating hypothalamus and peripheral orexigenic gene expressions associated with food intake.

Animals ; Dietary Fats ; pharmacology ; Feeding Behavior ; drug effects ; physiology ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Hypothalamus ; Isoflavones ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Neuropeptides ; genetics ; metabolism ; Obesity ; Ovariectomy ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; Rats ; Soybeans ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of soy isoflavones (SI) on ATP binding cassette A1 (ABCA1) expression in rats without ovary with atherosclerosis.

METHODSAfter they were raised for a week by given basic feed, the ovaries of 50 12-week old SPF rats were removed. The rats were randomly divided into groups by weight. Ten rats were selected as the basic control group (A) that basic feed was given all through the research. The other 40 rats were given high-fat diets and at the end of 4 weeks, these rats were randomly divided into four groups by blood lipid level: atherosclerotic model group (B) that was given high-fat diets through the research, low isoflavones group (C) that was given high-fat diets plus 30 mg/kg SI, middle isoflavones group (D) that was given high-fat diets plus 90 mg/kg SI, and high isoflavones group (E) that was given high-fat diets plus 270 mg/kg SI. After 22 weeks, all rats were executed to measure morphological change on the aorta wall, assessing the ABCA1 gene expression in aorta wall by real-time PCR and protein expression by Western blotting in aorta wall, small intestine and liver.

RESULTSSerum lipid level of A, B, C, D, E groups: TC levels were (6.82 +/- 0.22), (15.73 +/- 1.51), (10.77 +/- 1.12), (9.95 +/- 1.18), (9.11 +/- 1.12) mmol/L respectively (F = 72.882, P < 0.01); TG levels were: (2.49 +/- 0.24), (0.78 +/- 0.13), (0.39 +/- 0.08), (0.29 +/- 0.09), (0.24 +/- 0.09) mmol/L respectively (F = 378.515, P < 0.01); LDL-C levels were (1.29 +/- 0.08), (14.76 +/- 1.23), (8.18 +/- 0.80), (7.85 +/- 0.72), (7.16 +/- 0.64)mmol/L respectively (F = 320.936, P < 0.01); HDL-C levels were (1.94 +/- 0.18), (1.04 +/- 0.10), (1.55 +/- 0.14), (1.88 +/- 0.17), (2.11 +/- 0.22) mmol/L respectively (F = 49.450, P < 0.01). ABCA1 protein expression in intestine, liver and aorta: for A, B, C, E groups in intestine were 96.577 +/- 9.743, 5.218 +/- 2.048, 18.060 +/- 5.179, 54.725 +/- 8.960, respectively (F = 172.272, P < 0.01); ABCA1 protein expression in liver of groups of A, B, C, E were: 13.657 +/- 2.397, 1.361 +/- 0.266, 7.069 +/- 2.264, 11.793 +/- 2.515 respectively (F = 37.383, P < 0.01); ABCA1 protein expression in aorta of groups A, B, C, E were: 6.756 +/- 1.310, 0.027 +/- 0.006, 0.035 +/- 0.002 and 7.479 +/- 1.520 respectively (F = 91.999, P < 0.01). Compared to basic control group, atherosclerotic plaque could be observed in atherosclerotic model group, and it could be partially reversed by isoflavones addition.

CONCLUSIONSoy isoflavones treatment might inhibit atherosclerotic progression by lowering the level of blood lipid and increasing ABCA1 expression.

ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1 ; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters ; genetics ; Animals ; Atherosclerosis ; blood ; genetics ; Female ; Gene Expression ; drug effects ; Isoflavones ; pharmacology ; Lipids ; blood ; Ovariectomy ; Ovary ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Soybeans ; chemistry

During carcinogenesis, NF-kappaB mediates processes associated with deregulation of the normal control of proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Thus, suppression of NF-kappaB has been linked with chemoprevention of cancer. Accumulating findings reveal that heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a molecular chaperone and a component of the IkappaB kinase (IKK) complex that plays a central role in NF-kappaB activation. HSP90 also stabilizes key proteins involved in cell cycle control and apoptosis signaling. We have determined whether the exogenous administration of isoflavone-deprived soy peptide prevents 7,12-dimethylbenz[alpha]anthracene (DMBA)-induced rat mammary tumorigenesis and investigated the mechanism of action. Dietary administration of soy peptide (3.3 g/rat/day) significantly reduced the incidence of ductal carcinomas (50%), the number of tumors per multiple tumor-bearing rats (49%; P < 0.05), and extended the latency period of tumor development (8.07 +/- 0.92 weeks) compared to control diet animals (10.80 +/- 1.30; P < 0.05). Our results have further demonstrated that soy peptide (1) dramatically inhibits the expression of HSP90, thereby suppressing signaling pathway leading to NF-kappaB activation; (2) induces expression of p21, p53, and caspase-3 proteins; and (3) inhibits expression of VEGF. In agreement with our in vivo data, soy peptide treatment inhibited the growth of human breast MCF-7 tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner and induced apoptosis. Taken together, our in vivo and in vitro results suggest chemopreventive and tumor suppressive functions of isoflavone-deprived soy peptide by inducing growth arrest and apoptosis.
9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene ; Adenocarcinoma/*prevention & control ; Animals ; Apoptosis/*drug effects ; Breast Neoplasms/chemically induced/pathology/*prevention & control ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Chemoprevention ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins/genetics/metabolism ; Humans ; Isoflavones/chemistry ; NF-kappa B/genetics/metabolism ; Peptides/chemistry/isolation & purification/therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Soybean Proteins/chemistry/*isolation & purification/*therapeutic use ; Soybeans/chemistry