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Silymarin is a flavonoid compound derived from milk thistle (Silybum marianum) seeds which has several pharmacological applications. Chalcone synthase (CHS) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of flavonoids; thereby, the identification of CHS encoding genes in milk thistle plant can be of great importance. In the current research, fragments of CHS genes were amplified using degenerate primers based on the conserved parts of Asteraceae CHS genes, and then cloned and sequenced. Analysis of the resultant nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences led to the identification of two different members of CHS gene family,SmCHS1 and SmCHS2. Third member, full-length cDNA (SmCHS3) was isolated by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), whose open reading frame contained 1239 bp including exon 1 (190 bp) and exon 2 (1049 bp), encoding 63 and 349 amino acids, respectively. In silico analysis of SmCHS3 sequence contains all the conserved CHS sites and shares high homology with CHS proteins from other plants.Real-time PCR analysis indicated that SmCHS1 and SmCHS3 had the highest transcript level in petals in the early flowering stage and in the stem of five upper leaves, followed by five upper leaves in the mid-flowering stage which are most probably involved in anthocyanin and silymarin biosynthesis.

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Pod distortion syndrome (PDS) is a particular type of growth in which soybean plants remain green long after pod maturation. The aim of this study was to assess protein profiles of PDS and non-PDS soybeans via proteomics approaches. Therefore, protein expression profiles of PDS and non-PDS soybean cultivars viz. Katul and Gorgan 3 were analyzed by nESI-LC-MS/MS. Comparative analysis of significant proteins via nESI-LC-MS/MS revealed that 5 and 11 proteins in Gorgan 3 had significantly different expression levels in PDS and non-PDS, respectively. Most of these proteins had already been known to regulate diverse cellular activities e.g. energy production, metabolism, signal transduction, gene transcription and translation as well as protein destination and storage. But, the present findings suggest that the key regulators of PDS in soybean plants may be are 14-3-3 like protein, Nascent Polypeptide-Associated Complex Alpha Subunit, Rubisco large subunit, and oxygen evolving enhancer protein 2 protein.

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