Soil structure influences proteins, phenols, and flavonoids of varied medicinal plants in Al Jubail, KSA.

In Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, 29 medicinal plants have been collected from 15 diverse sites. The goal of this study was to determine how soil texture affected the protein, phenol, and flavonoid contents, and their relationship with the degree of genetic similarity. Most soil samples were loamy sand, except for sites 6 and 10, which were sandy loams. A total of 13 protein bands were shown where four were polymorphic and nine were monomorphic, with hereditary similarities ranging from 1 to 0.86. The results indicated that the protein content ranged from (9.32 µg/gm) in Anabasis setifera to (0.92 µg/gm) in Juncus rigidus. The highest phenol content was found in Halopeplis perfoliata (21.45 mg/gm), whereas the lowest was found in Zygophyllum qatarense 7 (2.133 mg/gm). Salsola imbricate 2 showed the highest flavonoid content (74.97 mg/gm), whereas Juncus rigidus had the lowest (1.43 mg/gm). The concentration varied based on the accession and species. In comparison to the other soils tested, the soil at site 7 had the highest concentrations of calcium (132.5 mEq/L), magnesium (47.5 mEq/L), sodium (52.83 mEq/L), potassium (26.96 mEq/L), chloride (63.00 mEq/L), and electric conductivity (25.9 ds/m). The surveyed accessions were classified into two groups using cluster analysis, principal component analysis, and multivariate heatmap. These findings imply that variations in active compounds that are important for plant tolerance to wild habitats are associated with different soil structures, allowing plants to be used in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, as well as selective breeding of accessions with high antioxidant properties.

ISSR and SCoT for evaluation of hereditary differences of 29 wild plants in Al Jubail Saudi Arabian.

This survey is concerned with the hereditary differences of 29 wild plants collected from fifteen different regions in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia using two molecular marker systems, viz. inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and start codon targeted (SCoT) molecular markers. Ten ISSR and ten SCoT primers amplified a total of 142 and 163 bands with a 87% and 84% polymorphism, respectively. The average number of polymorphic bands for each pair of ISSR and SCoT primers combinations was 12.4 and 13.7, respectively. The highest genetic similarity for ISSR (0.97) and SCoT (0.90) were recognized between Zygophyllum qatarense-22 and Juncus rigidus-23, and between Zygophyllum qatarense-28 and Zygophyllum qatarense-29, whereas the lowest was (0.59) differentiated between Zygophyllum qatarense-6 and Salsola imbricate-18 for ISSR and between Cyperus conglomeratus-7 and Halopeplis perfoliata-14 for SCoT. This considers confirmed the value of molecular techniques such as ISSR and SCoT to assess the hereditary differences among the selected 29 weeds for hereditary preservation and plant enhancement.

Genetic Diversity Among Saudi Peganum harmala and Rhazya stricta Populations Using Chemical and ISSR Markers.

BACKGROUND: The vernacular name 'Harmal' is used for two plant species in Saudi Arabia, i.e. Peganum harmala L. and Rhazya stricta Decne. Both are important medicinal plants which offer interesting pharmacological properties. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity among different populations of harmal based on chemical variations of alkaloids and molecular polymorphism. METHODS: Total alkaloids were extracted from plants of three populations of each species and estimated by using spectrophotometer and the chemical compounds were analyzed by Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Molecular polymorphism was estimated by using the Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) fingerprints. RESULTS: The results showed that the alkaloids content of R. stricta was higher than P. harmala populations. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of (65-53) compounds in R. stricta and P. harmala, and the percentage of polymorphism was found to be 93.2%. Sixteen ISSR primers produced 170 scorable bands with an average of 9.6 bands per primer and 75%-100% polymorphism. The cluster analysis using the unweighted pair-group method of the arithmetic average (UPGMA) method based on combined data of GC-MS and ISSR markers divided the six harmal genotypes into two major groups. CONCLUSION: The existence of variations in chemical and genetic markers is useful for the selection of potential genotypes for medicinal use, and for breeding lines for medicinal substances production to spare wild plants from uncontrolled harvesting for folk medicine.

Differential gene expression of salt-stressed Peganum harmala L.

The response of Peganum harmala L. seedlings subjected to salinity was investigated through the observation of germination at the 4th, 6th and 8th days under normal and two salinity levels (150 and 200 mM NaCl). Genetic response of P. harmala was examined by quantitative estimation and electrophoretic separation of catalase and salt-soluble proteins. The gene expression of catalase and osmotin were investigated using RT-PCR. Final percentage of germination at the eighth day of germination was reduced from 85% in the control to 70 and 30% under the concentration of 150 and 200 mM. The catalase activity and protein content increased as the salinity increased compared to control seedlings. The electrophoretic separation of catalase and salt-soluble proteins exhibited stress-related isozymes and protein bands. RT-PCR of cat1, cat2-3 and cat3 and osmotin genes exhibited up-regulation and down-regulation of genes subsequent to salinity. The reduced germination percentage of salt stressed seedlings was attributed to oxidative damage and osmotic imbalance. The increased catalase activity and protein content were concluded as protective response of P. harmala seedlings to salinity induced oxidative stress and osmoregulation. The additional isozyme bands in the salt-stressed seedlings indicated modulation of CAT gene expression in response to elevated H2O2 subsequent to salinity. The stress specific gene expression was interpreted as molecular mechanism by which plants can tolerate salinity stress. The up-regulation of cat2-3 gene in relation to stress suggests it crucial role in salinity tolerance in P. harmala and further studies are needed for its sequence identification.