BackgroundIn the present investigation, two genera of family Labiatae (genus Origanum and genus Thymus including their available species in Egypt) were analyzed genetically on DNA level using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Four selective primer combinations (E-AGC/M-CAA, E-AGC/M-CAC, E-AGG/M-CTC, and E-ACC/M-CAT) were used to detect genetic variations (polymorphisms) within and between the studied plant species of each genus and with their cultivated relatives.ResultsA total of 193 amplified fragments were obtained overall primer combinations with a disparity in the number of bands for each primer combination. The primer combination E-AGG/M-CTC exhibited a large number of amplicons (67) compared to the other primers with polymorphism percentage 69%. The polymorphism information content (PIC) was calculated for the four primer combinations showing a very high values ranging between 0.98 and 0.99. On the other hand, Thymus species (Thymus vulgaris, Thymus capitatus L., and Thymus decassatus Benth.) exhibited a total number of 171 amplicons for all primer combinations with an average of 42 bands. The primer combination E-AGG/M-CTC produced the largest number of bands (62 bands) with polymorphism percentage 35%, even though the primer combination AGC/M-CAA was more efficient to give high polymorphisms within Thymus species where it resulted in a total of 35 bands with polymorphism percentage 63%. The PIC values were calculated ranging from 0.96 to 0.99.ConclusionOne can conclude that AFLP technique was informative and efficient technique to give a good coverage of Origanum and Thymus genomes. Furthermore, it was helpful to elucidate the genetic variations and phylogenetic relationships within the studied species as a basis for further studies on these genera and related species.

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erpenes (terpenoids or isoprenoids) play a key role in primary and secondary metabolism in a variety of organisms. In plants, its biosynthesis is catalyzed by two key pathways mevalonate and non-mevalonate pathways. The genome of garden sage plant (Salvia officinalis) contains 65 terpene synthase (SoTPS) genes, and only a few genes which related to terpenoids were studied. Here, we demonstrate the functional characterization of beta-amyrin synthase (SoAMYS) gene, by introducing it into Arabidopsis thaliana and found that SoAMYS overexpression improved the flowers formation in transgenic Arabidopsis compared to the wild type plants. Metabolic analysis reported that the production of various types of terpenes, especially beta-amyrin triterpene which, were increased and decreased in SoAMYS overexpression and wild type lines, respectively. These finding suggesting that SoAMYS functions as a beta-amyrin synthase in plant. Our results were further supported using some bioinformatics tools to predict the putative subcellular localization and tissue-specific expression of SoAMYS. In context that, SoAMYS gene was reported to be localized in plastids with highly expression level in flowers stage 15, pedicels. This is the first report of a gene involved in the beta-amyrin as a triterpene from S. officinalis plant.

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