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Analysis of the Transcriptome of Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce Uncovers Putative Genes Involved in Isoflavonoid Biosynthesis

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Abstract

Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce (P. odoratum) is a traditional Chinese herb. The isoflavonoids of P. odoratum are important medicinal bioactive compounds for the treatment of hypoimmunity, rheumatic heart disease, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. This study used RNA sequencing to identify potential genes regulating isoflavonoid biosynthesis in P. odoratum. To do this, we generated an overview of metabolic and secondary metabolic pathways, using MAPMAN, and identified 96 genes encoding seven key enzymes involved in isoflavonoid biosynthesis through their KEGG annotation. Alignment of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase or chalcone synthase amino acid sequences revealed well-conserved sequences, spatial structures, and active sites. We also verified the expression of key genes encoding phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and chalcone synthase by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). This analysis of the isoflavonoid biosynthesis pathway and its crucial enzymes in P. odoratum lays the foundation for uncovering the regulatory mechanism of isoflavonoid biosynthesis.

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Availability of Data and Materials

I can confirm I have included a statement regarding data and material availability in the declaration section of my manuscript. The RNA-seq datasets from three Polygonatum odoratum tissues were deposited within the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database (Accession:SRP187533, https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/PRJNA525641?reviewer=lih1q117q13bmpui01fqq9uoik).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Beijing Genomics Institute for assistance with experiments and Qingshan Yang for identifying plant materials.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Project of Sustainable Utilization of Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Resources (Grant No. 2060302), the Natural Science Research Grant of Higher Education of Anhui Province (KJ2018ZD028), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province of China (1408085QH182) and National project cultivation fund of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine (2020py02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anhui University of Chinese Medicine and Anhui Academy of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230038, China

    Shengxiang Zhang, Yuanyuan Shi, Chunmiao Shan, Liqiang Zhao, Kelong Ma, Luqi Huang & Jiawen Wu

  2. Key Laboratory of Xin’an Medicine, Ministry of Education, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230038, China

    Shengxiang Zhang, Yuanyuan Shi, Chunmiao Shan, Liqiang Zhao & Jiawen Wu

  3. Synergetic Innovation Center of Anhui Authentic Chinese Medicine Quality Improvement, Hefei, 230012, China

    Jiawen Wu

  4. Clinical College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230012, China

    Kelong Ma

  5. State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Dao-di Herbs, National Resource Center for Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China

    Luqi Huang

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  1. Shengxiang Zhang
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  2. Yuanyuan Shi
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Contributions

Project design: JWW and LQH, Experiments and data analysis: SXZ, YYS, CMS, LQZ, and KLM. Manuscript preparation: SXZ. Manuscript revision: JWW. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Luqi Huang or Jiawen Wu.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Zhang, S., Shi, Y., Shan, C. et al. Analysis of the Transcriptome of Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce Uncovers Putative Genes Involved in Isoflavonoid Biosynthesis. J. Plant Biol. 63, 217–228 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-020-09246-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-020-09246-6

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