Soybean plants are sensitive to the effects of abiotic stress and belong to the group of crops that are less drought and salt tolerant. The identification of genes involved in mechanisms targeted to cope with water shortage is an essential and indispensable task for improving the drought and salt tolerance of soybean. One of the approaches for obtaining lines with increased tolerance is genetic modification. The dehydration-responsive element binding proteins (DREBs), belonging to the AP2 family, are trans-active transcription factors that bind to the cis-sequences of the promoter for activating the expression of the target genes that mediate drought and salt tolerant responses. In this study, the GmDREB6 transgene was introduced into DT84 cultivar soybean plants, using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The efficacy of GmDREB6 overexpression in enhancing the transcriptional level of GmP5CS and proline accumulation in genetically modified (GM) soybean plants was also assayed. The results demonstrated that ten GM soybean plants (T0 generation) were successfully generated from the transformed explants after selecting with kanamycin. Among these plantlets, the presence of the GmDREB6 transgene was confirmed in nine plants by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and eight plants showed positive results in Southern blot. In the T1 generation, four GM lines, labelled T1-2, T1-4, T1-7, and T1-10, expressed the recombinant GmDREB6 protein. In the T2 generation, the transcriptional levels of the GmP5CS gene were higher in the GM lines than in the non-transgenic plants, under normal conditions and also under conditions of salt stress and drought, ranging from 1.36 to 2.01 folds and 1.58 to 3.16 folds that of the non-transgenic plants, respectively. The proline content was higher in the four GM soybean lines, T2-2, T2-4, T2-7, and T2-10 than in the non-transgenic plants, ranging from 0.82 μmol/g to 4.03 μmol/g. The proline content was the highest in the GM T2-7 line (7.77 μmol/g). In GM soybean lines, T2-2, T2-4, T2-7, and T2-10 proline content increased after plants were subjected to salt stress for seven days, in comparison to that under normal conditions, and ranged from 247.83% to 300%, while that of the non-GM plants was 238.22%. These results suggested that GmDREB6 could act as a potential candidate for genetic engineering for improving tolerance to salt stresses.

Aconitum carmichaelii Debx. is a herbal species that contains many precious bioactive substances, which are alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, and glycosides. Flavonoids, which are major secondary compounds, play an important role in maintaining redox balance in the cells of the plant body. Many flavonoids have antibacterial, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. However, studies have mainly focused on aconitine, which is a highly toxic group A poison belonging to the alkaloid group, but with little mention of flavonoids. The flavonoids in A. carmichaelii are a group of substances with high content, concentrated in leaves and flowers, including quercetin and kaempferol. F3′5′H (Flavonoid 3′5′-hydroxylase) has been identified as the key enzyme involved in the final steps of flavonoid biosynthesis in plants in general and in A. carmichaelii specifically. This study offers the first report, and demonstrates that the overexpression of the F3′5′H gene from a herbal plant, A. carmichaelii, increases flavonoid content in genetically modified tobacco plants. The A. carmichaelii gene was transformed into tobacco leaf tissue to create transgenic tobacco plants. The AcF3′5′H gene was incorporated into the tobacco genome and was expressed in four transgenic tobacco lines (T01, T03, T05, and T014). The F3′5′H content increased from 20.33% to 32.00% compared with that in non-transformed plants (P < 0.001). Therefore, the flavonoid content of four transgenic tobacco lines increased compared to the WT, from 69.23% to 122.23% (P < 0.001). The results of the successful expression of the AcF3′5′H gene in model tobacco plants are the basis for using the AcF3′5′H gene for improving flavonoid content in other medicinal plants. Thus, the AcF3′5′H gene considered in this work could be a candidate for gene technology to enhance flavonoid accumulation in plants.

Extracts from the rhizomes of Paris species have been used in Asia to help treat inflammation, infection, analgesia, detoxification, dysentery, etc. Analysis of the chemical components from the rhizomes of Paris vietnamensis showed that they contained polyphenols, flavons, flavonols, flavonoids, tannins and steroidal and triterpenoid saponins. In this study, P. vietnamensis was identified from the sample collected from Sapa, Laocai province, Vietnam and three steroidal glycosides from rhizomes of this species were evaluated for anticancer and antimicrobial activity in vitro. The samples were identified as belonging to P. vietnamensis species through a combination of morphological characteristics and DNA barcodes based on the nucleotide sequence of the ITS and matK. All three steroidal glycosides exhibited strong cytotoxic activity against SK-LU-1, HeLa and MKN7 cell lines with IC 50 values ranging from 1.07 to 4.37 mmol L À1 , and exhibited high antimicrobial activity against strains of Serratia marcescens, Escherichia coli, Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus subtilis. This study provides information on the antibacterial and inhibitory activities of steroidal glycosides derived from the rhizomes of P. vietnamensis collected from Sapa, Laocai province, Vietnam on cancer cell lines. Thus, P. vietnamensis could be used as an alternative to other species of the Paris genus for anticancer and antimicrobial treatment.

Đậu tương, loại cây trồng thu hạt có giá trị kinh tế và dinh dưỡng cao và là cây cải tạo đất trồng, nhưng có khả năng chịu hạn, mặn kém. Trong hệ gen đậu tương, nhóm gen DREB được xác định có chức năng kích hoạt phiên mã của các gene chống chịu khi có tín hiệu stress, trong đó có một số gene chưa rõ chức năng cụ thể và DREB7 là một gene trong số đó. Trong bài báo này, gene GmDREB7A và cấu trúc biểu hiện mang gen này được tạo ra và biến nạp thành công vào thuốc lá. Gene GmDREB7A gồm đoạn mã hóa amino acid, đoạn mã hóa c-MYC, KDEL và thêm đoạn nucleotide ngắn ở đầu 5’ và 3’ chứa điểm cắt của enzyme giới hạn. Hai cấu trúc chuyển gen pBI121_GmDREB7A và pZY_GmDREB7A đã được thiết kế thành công. Kết quả biến nạp cấu trúc pBI121_GmDREB7A mang gene GmDREB7A vào thuốc lá đã thu được 248 cây biến nạp sau giai đoạn chọn lọc bằng kanamycin và 30 cây được trồng trong điều kiện nhà lưới với 9 cây dương tính với PCR. Cần tiếp tục phân tích các cây thuốc lá chuyển gen T0 dương tính với PCR và đánh giá khả năng chống chịu các stress hạn, mặn của các cây chuyển gen GmDREB7A.

Glycine max (L.) Merrill is a crop that brings a lot of economic and nutritive values, however soybean is quite sensitive to stress. The applications of gene technology can improve resistance of soybean plants against external stress factors. The aim of this study was to conduct a transgenic vector containing GmDREB6 gene and determine the expression of gene encoding GmDREB6 in Nicotiana tabacum before transforming into soybean plants. The GmDREB6 artificial gene was synthesized containing nucleotide fragment encoding 230 amino acids, nucleotide fragment encoding cmyc antigen and nucleotide fragments with cut-off points of XbaI/SacI enzyme pair. The results indicated that the 35S-GmDREB6-cmyc construct was designed and transferred into tobacco plants. The GmDREB6 was incorporated in the genome and was expressed in transgenic tobacco plants at the transcriptional level. The transgenic vector pBI121_GmDREB6 well worked on the model tobacco plants. Therefore, it can be used for transferring into soybean plants to enhance soybean tolerance to abiotic stress.