Actin gene identification from selected medicinal plants for their use as internal controls for gene expression studies. | [Pakistan Journal of Botany • 2015]

Author(s):

1. Farees-Ud-Din Mufti: Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

2. Sitwat Aman: Department of Biochemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

3. Sadia Banaras: Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

4. Zabta Khan Shinwari: Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan;Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan

5. Samina Shakeel: Department of Biochemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; Department of Biochemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract:

Internal control genes are the constitutive genes which maintain the basic cellular functions and regularly express in both normal and stressed conditions in living organisms. They are used in normalization of gene expression studies in comparative analysis of target genes, as their expression remains comparatively unchanged in all varied conditions. Among internal control genes, actin is considered as a candidate gene for expression studies due to its vital role in shaping cytoskeleton and plant physiology. Unfortunately most of such knowledge is limited to only model plants or crops, not much is known about important medicinal plants. Therefore, we selected seven important medicinal wild plants for molecular identification of actin gene. We used gene specific primers designed from the conserved regions of several known orthologues or homologues of actin genes from other plants. The amplified products of ~370-380 bp were sequenced and submitted to GeneBank after their confirmation using different bioinformatics tools. All the novel partial sequences of putative actin genes were submitted to GeneBank [Parthenium hysterophorus (KJ774023), Fagonia indica (KJ774024), Rhazya stricta (KJ774025), Whithania coagulans (KJ774026), Capparis decidua (KJ774027), Verbena officinalis (KJ774028) and Aerva javanica (KJ774029)]. The comparisons of these partial sequences by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) and phylogenetic trees demonstrated high similarity with known actin genes of other plants. Our findings illustrated highly conserved nature of actin gene among these selected plants. These novel partial fragments of actin genes from these wild medicinal plants can be used as internal controls for future gene expression studies of these important plants after precise validations of their stable expression in such plants.

Page(s): 629-635

DOI: DOI not available

Published: Journal: Pakistan Journal of Botany, Volume: 47, Issue: 2, Year: 2015

Keywords:

Keywords are not available for this article.

References:

References are not available for this document.

Citations

Citations are not available for this document.

Citations

Downloads

Views