VARIABILITY OF ROSMARINIC ACID, CARNOSIC ACID AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY IN THE SAGE COLLECTION OF THE GENEBANK IN GATERSLEBEN

Salvia officinalis L. (common sage) is a well-known medicinal plant with a variable essential oil composition, and an interesting anti-oxidative potential which is due predominantly to two main substances and their derivatives, rosmarinic and carnosic acid. In this study the rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid and some anti-oxidative parameters (total flavonoids, total phenolics, DPPH, FRAP) of 19 accessions of sage were evaluated in the sage collection of the genebank in Gatersleben (Germany). The aerial parts of 10 individual plants of each accession cultivated in 2006, were collected two times (2007 and 2008, from the same experimental field) at the beginning of the flowering period, and used for this study. The rosmarinic acid content was 6-46 mg/g in 2007 and 9-25 mg/g in 2008, and correlated well with all the other antioxidant parameters e.g. total flavonoid, total phenolics, DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl ) and FRAP (Ferric reduction antioxidant power)antioxidant activities. The carnosic acid evaluated only with 2008 sample was varying from 0.5 to 4.3 mg/g and had low significant correlation with the antioxidant parameters. The results showed altogether the high potential of S. officinalis which is already in use as a natural antioxidant, due to its main phenolic compound, rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid. The present study showed a high variability between and also within accessions through the studied parameters, which could be exploited by plant breeders in sage genotype selection

THE VARIABILITY OF THE ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION IN THE SAGE COLLECTION OF THE GENEBANK GATERSLEBEN

Genebanks are valuable resources for ex-situ conservation and breeding of economic plants and wild plant relatives. Analysing plant secondary compounds of such collections delivers useful information about the variability (heterogeneity) in the collection and enables plant breeders to pre-select accessions when breeding for specific plant secondary compounds like essential oil content and/or composition. For garden sage (Salvia officinalis L.), 10 individual plants of each of the 19 accessions available in the genebank were analysed for their essential oil content and composition. The essential oil content was in the range of 0.8% to 2.4%. The essential oil composition was comparable to results already published with the exception of two accessions, which were very low in α-thujone (3%) and β-thujone

Rare Variant Analysis of Human and Rodent Obesity Genes in Individuals with Severe Childhood Obesity

Obesity is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Using targeted and whole-exome sequencing, we studied 32 human and 87 rodent obesity genes in 2,548 severely obese children and 1,117 controls. We identified 52 variants contributing to obesity in 2% of cases including multiple novel variants in GNAS, which were sometimes found with accelerated growth rather than short stature as describedw previously. Nominally significant associations were found for rare functional variants in BBS1, BBS9, GNAS, MKKS, CLOCK and ANGPTL6. The p.S284X variant in ANGPTL6 drives the association signal (rs201622589, MAF∼0.1%, odds ratio = 10.13, p-value = 0.042) and results in complete loss of secretion in cells. Further analysis including additional case-control studies and population controls (N = 260,642) did not support association of this variant with obesity (odds ratio = 2.34, p-value = 2.59 × 10-3), highlighting the challenges of testing rare variant associations and the need for very large sample sizes. Further validation in cohorts with severe obesity and engineering the variants in model organisms will be needed to explore whether human variants in ANGPTL6 and other genes that lead to obesity when deleted in mice, do contribute to obesity. Such studies may yield druggable targets for weight loss therapies