As a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, Pulsatilla chinensis (Bunge) Regel is well known for its anti-inflammation and anti-cancer activities, which are attributed to its active components including total saponins and monomers. To clarify the synthesis and metabolism mechanisms of class components in callus terpenes of P. chinensis, a certain concentration of salicylic acid (SA) hormone elicitor was added to the callus before being analysed by transcriptomic and metabolomic techniques. Results showed that the content of Pulsatilla saponin B4 in the callus suspension culture was significantly increased up to 1.99% with the addition of SA. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in 122 metabolic pathways, such as terpenoid metabolism-related pathways: terpenoid skeleton synthesis pathway, monoterpenoid biosynthesis pathways, diterpenoid biosynthesis pathways, and ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis pathways. A total of 31 differentially accumulated metabolites were obtained from four differential groups. Amongst 21 kinds of known chemical components in P. chinensis, deoxyloganic acid was the only monoterpenoid; the others are triterpenoids. In summary, this study found that SA elicitors can affect the metabolic changes of terpenoids in P. chinensis callus, which provided a basis for analysing the genetic regulation of terpenoid components of leucons.
Pulsatilla chinensis (Bunge) Regel has been widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. With the deepening of clinical application, the research on its plant resources has attracted much attention. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of distinct germination during Pulsatilla seed development are still mostly unknown. Therefore, in this study, four germination stages of P. chinensis seeds, with obvious differences in seed appearance traits, were used as materials. Transcriptome sequencing technology was used to analyse the molecular mechanisms of seed germination. A total of 27,601 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (six different groups) were determined. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the up-regulated DEGs were enriched in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, photosynthesis, photosynthesis–antenna proteins, plant hormone signal transduction, flavonoid biosynthesis and other pathways. A total of 87 DEGs was enriched in phytohormone signal transduction pathways, including auxin (25), abscisic acid (13), gibberellin (6), ethylene (9) and cytokinin (7). Furthermore, a protein–protein interaction network was constructed using these DEGs. Some DEGs were validated by qRT-PCR analysis. This comprehensive analysis provided basic information on the key genes of plant hormone signal transduction pathways involved in the seed germination process of P. chinensis (Bunge) Regel.
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