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Function Analysis of Caffeoyl-CoA O-Methyltransferase for Biosynthesis of Lignin and Phenolic Acid in Salvia miltiorrhiza

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Abstract

In this study, we cloned a full-length cDNA and the genomic DNA sequence of SmCCoAOMT (GenBank ID JQ007585) from Salvia miltiorrhiza. The 744-bp open-reading frame encodes a protein of 247 amino acids that shares 95 % similarity with one in Vitis vinifera. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that SmCCoAOMT is most highly expressed in the stems and can be induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and XC-1 treatment. To evaluate its function in vivo, we generated RNA interference transgenic plants through Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer. Compared with untransformed control plants, the transgenics had significantly less lignin and the expression of lignin-biosynthetic genes SmCCR and SmCOMT was depressed. In 90-day-old roots from plants of transgenic line M5, accumulations of rosmarinic acid and salvianolic acid B (Sal B) were greatly reduced by 0.89- and 0.69-fold, respectively. This low-Sal B phenotype was stable in the roots, with the level of accumulation being approximately 43.58 mg g−1 dry weight, which was 52 % of the amount measured in the untransformed control. Our results suggest that SmCCoAOMT is involved in lignin biosynthesis and affects the accumulation of phenolic acids. This study also provides potential guidance for using lignin-related genes to genetically engineer Salvia miltiorrhiza.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, China (2012JQ4013) and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31300256).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Medicinal Resources and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry, National Engineering Laboratory for Resource Development of Endangered Crude Drugs in Northwest of China, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710119, People’s Republic of China

    Zhengjun Wang, Qian Ge, Chen Chen, Xinxin Jin, Xiaoyan Cao & Zhezhi Wang

  2. The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Zhengjun Wang

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  1. Zhengjun Wang
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Correspondence to Zhezhi Wang.

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Wang, Z., Ge, Q., Chen, C. et al. Function Analysis of Caffeoyl-CoA O-Methyltransferase for Biosynthesis of Lignin and Phenolic Acid in Salvia miltiorrhiza . Appl Biochem Biotechnol 181, 562–572 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-016-2231-4

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