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Transcriptomes of Podophyllum hexandrum unravel candidate miRNAs and their association with the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites

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Abstract

Podophyllotoxin is a high value metabolite having anticancerous activity and procured from a medicinal plant Podophyllum hexandrum. The escalating demand for podophyllotoxin necessitates development of alternate production platforms. Cell cultures have been tried in the past, however, podophyllotoxin yields were very low (0.3%). Multiple genes of biosynthetic pathway have been correlated with podophyllotoxin content. Understanding regulation of podophyllotoxin is, therefore, essential to design a suitable genetic intervention strategy. Six potential miRNAs were identified in NGS transcriptomes of P. hexandrum for which eight potential mRNA targets were discerned. The identified miRNAs and their mRNA targets (UDP glycosyltransferase, flavonol synthase, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, peroxidase, malate dehydrogenase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, WRKY 37 and MYBF1 transcription factors) were further tested for any correlation through qRT-PCR. miR396b, miR2673a, miR828b and miR2910 established negative correlation with their mRNA targets through downregulation via complementary miRNA:mRNA base pairing. This is the first report on identification, characterisation, validation and expression analysis of miRNAs and their targets in P. hexandrum.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, for providing research grant to Prof. Rajinder S. Chauhan in the form of a programme support on high-value medicinal plants. We are thankful to Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI), Panthaghati, Shimla, India for providing P. hexandrum plants. We would like to thank Ms. Ira Vashisht and Mr. Tarun Pal for their assistance in research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173234, India

    Pawan Kumar, Jibesh Kumar Padhan, Ashwani Kumar & Rajinder S. Chauhan

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, 133207, India

    Pawan Kumar

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  1. Pawan Kumar
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  2. Jibesh Kumar Padhan
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  3. Ashwani Kumar
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  4. Rajinder S. Chauhan
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Contributions

PK and RSC defined the research theme and co-designed experiments. PK, AK and JKP have done in silico analysis. PK wrote the manuscript, carried out experiments and analyzed data. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rajinder S. Chauhan.

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Kumar, P., Padhan, J.K., Kumar, A. et al. Transcriptomes of Podophyllum hexandrum unravel candidate miRNAs and their association with the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 27, 46–54 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-017-0414-x

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