@article{zhang_burton_upchurch_whittle_shanklin_dewey_2008, title={Mutations in a Delta(9)-Stearoyl-ACP-Desaturase Gene Are Associated with Enhanced Stearic Acid Levels in Soybean Seeds}, volume={48}, ISSN={["1435-0653"]}, DOI={10.2135/cropsci2008.02.0084}, abstractNote={Stearic acid (18:0) is typically a minor component of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] oil, accounting for only 2 to 4% of the total fatty acid content. Increasing stearic acid levels of soybean oil would lead to enhanced oxidative stability, potentially reducing the need for hydrogenation, a process leading to the formation of undesirable trans fatty acids. Although mutagenesis strategies have been successful in developing soybean germplasm with elevated 18:0 levels in the seed oil, the specifi c gene mutations responsible for this phenotype were not known. We report a newly identifi ed soybean gene, designated SACPD-C, that encodes a unique isoform of Δ 9 –stearoyl-ACP-desaturase, the enzyme responsible for converting stearic acid to oleic acid (18:1). High levels of SACPD-C transcript were only detected in developing seed tissue, suggesting that the encoded desaturase functions to enhance oleic acid biosynthetic capacity as the immature seed is actively engaged in triacylglycerol production and storage. The participation of SACPD-C in storage triacylglycerol synthesis is further supported by the observation of mutations in this gene in two independent sources of elevated 18:0 soybean germplasm, A6 (30% 18:0) and FAM94-41 (9% 18:0). A molecular marker diagnostic for the FAM94-41 SACPD-C gene mutation strictly associates with the elevated 18:0 phenotype in a segregating population, and could thus serve as a useful tool in the development of cultivars with oils possessing enhanced oxidative stability.}, number={6}, journal={CROP SCIENCE}, author={Zhang, Ping and Burton, Joseph W. and Upchurch, Robert G. and Whittle, Edward and Shanklin, John and Dewey, Ralph E.}, year={2008}, pages={2305–2313} }
 @article{irsigler_costa_zhang_reis_dewey_boston_fontes_2007, title={Expression profiling on soybean leaves reveals integration of ER- and osmotic-stress pathways}, volume={8}, ISSN={["1471-2164"]}, DOI={10.1186/1471-2164-8-431}, abstractNote={Abstract Background Despite the potential of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response to accommodate adaptive pathways, its integration with other environmental-induced responses is poorly understood in plants. We have previously demonstrated that the ER-stress sensor binding protein (BiP) from soybean exhibits an unusual response to drought. The members of the soybean BiP gene family are differentially regulated by osmotic stress and soybean BiP confers tolerance to drought. While these results may reflect crosstalk between the osmotic and ER-stress signaling pathways, the lack of mutants, transcriptional response profiles to stresses and genome sequence information of this relevant crop has limited our attempts to identify integrated networks between osmotic and ER stress-induced adaptive responses. As a fundamental step towards this goal, we performed global expression profiling on soybean leaves exposed to polyethylene glycol treatment (osmotic stress) or to ER stress inducers. Results The up-regulated stress-specific changes unmasked the major branches of the ER-stress response, which include enhancing protein folding and degradation in the ER, as well as specific osmotically regulated changes linked to cellular responses induced by dehydration. However, a small proportion (5.5%) of total up-regulated genes represented a shared response that seemed to integrate the two signaling pathways. These co-regulated genes were considered downstream targets based on similar induction kinetics and a synergistic response to the combination of osmotic- and ER-stress-inducing treatments. Genes in this integrated pathway with the strongest synergistic induction encoded proteins with diverse roles, such as plant-specific development and cell death (DCD) domain-containing proteins, an ubiquitin-associated (UBA) protein homolog and NAC domain-containing proteins. This integrated pathway diverged further from characterized specific branches of ER-stress as downstream targets were inversely regulated by osmotic stress. Conclusion The present ER-stress- and osmotic-stress-induced transcriptional studies demonstrate a clear predominance of stimulus-specific positive changes over shared responses on soybean leaves. This scenario indicates that polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced cellular dehydration and ER stress elicited very different up-regulated responses within a 10-h stress treatment regime. In addition to identifying ER-stress and osmotic-stress-specific responses in soybean ( Glycine max ), our global expression-profiling analyses provided a list of candidate regulatory components, which may integrate the osmotic-stress and ER-stress signaling pathways in plants.}, journal={BMC GENOMICS}, author={Irsigler, Andre ST and Costa, Maximiller Dl and Zhang, Ping and Reis, Pedro AB and Dewey, Ralph E. and Boston, Rebecca S. and Fontes, Elizabeth P. B.}, year={2007}, month={Nov} }