Comprehensive transcriptome profiling of Salvia miltiorrhiza for discovery of genes associated with the biosynthesis of tanshinones and phenolic acids

Wei Zhou, Qiang Huang, Xiao Wu, Zewen Zhou, Mingquan Ding, Min Shi, Fenfen Huang, Shen Li, Yao Wang, Guoyin Kai
2017 Scientific Reports  
Tanshinones and phenolic acids are crucial bioactive compounds biosynthesized in Salvia miltiorrhiza. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is an effective elicitor to enhance the production of phenolic acids and tanshinones simultaneously, while yeast extract (YE) is used as a biotic elicitor that only induce tanshinones accumulation. However, little was known about the different molecular mechanism. To identify the downstream and regulatory genes involved in tanshinone and phenolic acid biosynthesis, we
more » ... ducted comprehensive transcriptome profiling of S. miltiorrhiza hairy roots treated with either MeJA or YE. Total 55588 unigenes were assembled from about 1.72 billion clean reads, of which 42458 unigenes (76.4%) were successfully annotated. The expression patterns of 19 selected genes in the significantly upregulated unigenes were verified by quantitative real-time PCR. The candidate downstream genes and other cytochrome P450s involved in the late steps of tanshinone and phenolic acid biosynthesis pathways were screened from the RNA-seq dataset based on co-expression pattern analysis with specific biosynthetic genes. Additionally, 375 transcription factors were identified to exhibit a significant up-regulated expression pattern in response to induction. This study can provide us a valuable gene resource for elucidating the molecular mechanism of tanshinones and phenolic acids biosynthesis in hairy roots of S. miltiorrhiza. Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Dan shen in Chinese) is a traditional Chinese herb with significant medicinal and economic values. It has been used widely to treat many cardiovascular diseases such as menstrual disorder, blood circulation disturbance, inflammation and angina pector 1 . The active ingredients of S. miltiorrhiza can be divided into two groups: one group is water-soluble phenolic acids, such as rosmarinic acids (RAs), salvianolic acids and lithospermic acid, functions as antibacterial, anti-oxidative and antiviral reagents 2 ; the other group is diterpenoid tanshinone, including tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, tanshinone IIB, dihydrotanshnone I and cryptotanshinone, exhibits various pharmacological activities including antioxidant, antitumor and anti-inflammatory properties. The active constituents obtained from cultivated S. miltiorrhiza is low and cannot meet the rapidly increasing market need 3, 4 . Genetic manipulation of active ingredients biosynthesis pathway in plants or hairy roots provide us a promising strategy 5 , which rely on the detail understanding of the biosynthesis pathway and regulation mechanism. The unique chemical constituents of S. miltiorrhiza, diterpenoids tanshinones are derived predominantly from the plastidic methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway or partly through the cytoplasmic mevalonate (MVA), with possible cross-talk between the common precursors of isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl Published: xx xx xxxx OPEN www.nature.com/scientificreports/ 2 Scientific RepoRts | 7: 10554 |
doi:10.1038/s41598-017-10215-2 pmid:28874707 pmcid:PMC5585387 fatcat:26phzk4ltzgqdgpvl7a7khmsi4