Biotech Updates

Identification of QTLs for Phytochemical Production in Arabidopsis

October 22, 2014

Scopoletin and scopolin are important secondary metabolites produced in plants as a defense mechanism against abiotic stresses. They belong to coumarins, phytochemicals widely used in medical applications and cosmetics. While coumarins scopolin and scopoletin occur in Arabidopsis thaliana roots, nothing is known about their variation in different Arabidopsis accessions.

Anna Ihnatowicz of the  University of Gdansk in Poland studied scopolin and scopoletin content in seven Arabidopsis accessions. A quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping was performed and found one QTL for scopolin and five QTLs for scopoletin accumulation. The identified QTLs explained 13.86% and 37.60% of the observed phenotypic variation between accessions in scopolin and scopoletin content, respectively. In silico analysis of genes identified other possible candidate genes for coumarins biosynthesis.

These show that Arabidopsis is an excellent model for studying coumarin biosynthesis in plants. It also provides basis for fine mapping and cloning of the genes involved in scopolin and scopoletin synthesis. The team has also identified new loci for this biosynthetic process.

For further information about the study, read the full article here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/s12870-014-0280-9.pdf