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Journal ArticleDOI

Genetic and phytochemical difference between some Indian and Italian plants of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

06 Aug 2007-Natural Product Research (Taylor & Francis Group)-Vol. 21, Iss: 10, pp 923-932
TL;DR: The results seem to confirm the hypothesis that the Italian populations of this species may not be indigenous but naturalised and due to the high withaferin A content of the Sardinian samples, these plants could be used as a source for pharmaceutical purposes.
About: This article is published in Natural Product Research.The article was published on 2007-08-06. It has received 31 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Withania somnifera.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Overall results suggested that MVA pathway was predominant in contributing intermediates for withanolides synthesis mainly through the campesterol/stigmasterol route in planta.
Abstract: Withanolides biosynthesis in the plant Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal is hypothesized to be diverged from sterol pathway at the level of 24-methylene cholesterol. The conversion and translocation of intermediates for sterols and withanolides are yet to be characterized in this plant. To understand the influence of mevalonate (MVA) and 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) pathways on sterols and withanolides biosynthesis in planta, we overexpressed the WsHMGR2 and WsDXR2 in tobacco, analyzed the effect of transient suppression through RNAi, inhibited MVA and MEP pathways and fed the leaf tissue with different sterols. Overexpression of WsHMGR2 increased cycloartenol, sitosterol, stigmasterol and campesterol compared to WsDXR2 transgene lines. Increase in cholesterol was, however, marginally higher in WsDXR2 transgenic lines. This was further validated through transient suppression analysis, and pathway inhibition where cholesterol reduction was found higher due to WsDXR2 suppression and all other sterols were affected predominantly by WsHMGR2 suppression in leaf. The transcript abundance and enzyme analysis data also correlate with sterol accumulation. Cholesterol feeding did not increase the withanolide content compared to cycloartenol, sitosterol, stigmasterol and campesterol. Hence, a preferential translocation of carbon from MVA and MEP pathways was found differentiating the sterols types. Overall results suggested that MVA pathway was predominant in contributing intermediates for withanolides synthesis mainly through the campesterol/stigmasterol route in planta.

48 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the role of endophytes in modulating the synthesis and site of withanolide production was investigated in W. somnifera plants and their promising role in in planta withanolides biosynthesis was established in both in-vivo grown as well in in-in-vitro raised composite W. soma plants.
Abstract: Tissue specific biosynthesis of secondary metabolites is a distinguished feature of medicinal plants. Withania somnifera, source of pharmaceutically important withanolides biosynthesizes withaferin-A in leaves and withanolide-A in roots. To increase the in planta withanolides production, a sustainable approach needs to be explored. Here, we isolated endophytes from different parts of W. somnifera plants and their promising role in in planta withanolide biosynthesis was established in both in-vivo grown as well in in-vitro raised composite W. somnifera plants. Overall, the fungal endophytes improved photosynthesis, plant growth and biomass, and the root-associated bacterial endophytes enhanced the withanolide content in both in-vivo and in-vitro grown plants by modulating the expression of withanolide biosynthesis genes in leaves and roots. Surprisingly, a few indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-producing and nitrogen-fixing root-associated endophytes could induce the biosynthesis of withaferin-A in roots by inducing in planta IAA-production and upregulating the expression of withanolide biosynthesis genes especially MEP-pathway genes (DXS and DXR) in roots as well. Results indicate the role of endophytes in modulating the synthesis and site of withanolides production and the selected endophytes can be used for enhancing the in planta withanolide production and enriching roots with pharmaceutically important withaferin-A which is generally absent in roots.

44 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review article documented and critically assessed W. somnifera regarding its ethnopharmacology, traditional use, botanical description, phytochemicals present, pharmacological activities, clinical trials, and marketed formulations, finding it to be non-toxic and effective clinically for human health and wellness.

41 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Ashwagandha could be a powerful antioxidant and a promising anticancer agent against HCC.
Abstract: ObjectiveTo evaluate the antioxidant and apoptotic inductive effects of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) leaf extract against a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line.MethodsAfter treating HepG2cells w...

32 citations


Cites background from "Genetic and phytochemical differenc..."

  • ...The phytochemical analysis of Egyptian Ashwagandha leaves suggests that it belongs to chemotype III, which is different to the Indian Ashwagandha regarding the antioxidant activity.(41,42) The results of the current study showed that ASH-WX had a strong cytotoxic effect on HepG2 cells....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results of this study will be helpful in developing stress-tolerant and high secondary metabolite yielding genotypes in Withania somnifera.
Abstract: Physiological, biochemical, and gene expression responses under drought stress were studied in Withania somnifera Photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, relative water content, chlorophyll content, and quantum yield of photosystems I and II (PSI and PSII) decreased in response to drought stress Comparative expression of genes involved in osmoregulation, detoxification, signal transduction, metabolism, and transcription factor was analyzed through quantitative RT-PCR The genes encoding 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS), glutathione S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), serine threonine-protein kinase (STK), serine threonine protein phosphatase (PSP), aldehyde dehydrogenase (AD), leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase/anthocyanin synthase (LD/AS), HSP, MYB, and WRKY have shown upregulation in response to drought stress condition in leaf tissues Enhanced detoxification and osmoregulation along with increased withanolides production were also observed under drought stress The results of this study will be helpful in developing stress-tolerant and high secondary metabolite yielding genotypes

30 citations


Cites methods from "Genetic and phytochemical differenc..."

  • ...This process was repeated three times and the combined methanol extracts were concentrated under vacuum for highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis using the conditions reported earlier (Scartezzini et al. 2007; Srivastava et al. 2008)....

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  • ...This process was repeated three times and the combined methanol extracts were concentrated under vacuum for highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis using the conditions reported earlier (Scartezzini et al. 2007; Srivastava et al. 2008)....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A mathematical model for the evolutionary change of restriction sites in mitochondrial DNA is developed and a measure called "nucleotide diversity" is proposed to express the degree of polymorphism in a population at the nucleotide level.
Abstract: A mathematical model for the evolutionary change of restriction sites in mitochondrial DNA is developed. Formulas based on this model are presented for estimating the number of nucleotide substitutions between two populations or species. To express the degree of polymorphism in a population at the nucleotide level, a measure called "nucleotide diversity" is proposed.

10,089 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The photochemically derived silver stain of nucleic acids in polyacrylamide gels originally described by Merril et al. was modified to reduce unspecific background staining and increase sensitivity and this improved staining procedure is applied for the routine analysis of complex DNA profiles generated by DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF).

2,879 citations

Book
01 Nov 2017

1,943 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Seven plants contain antioxidant principles, that can explain and justify their use in traditional medicine in the past as well as the present, and are viewed for their historical, etymological, morphological, phytochemical and pharmacological aspects.

801 citations