Comparative transcriptome analyses of differentSalvia miltiorrhizavarieties during the accumulation of tanshinones

Abstract

Salvia miltiorrhiza (Labiatae) is an important medicinal plant in traditional Chinese medicine. Tanshinones are one of the main active components of S. miltiorrhiza. It has been found that the intraspecific variation of S. miltiorrhiza is relatively large and the content of tanshinones in its roots of different varieties is also relatively different. To investigate the molecular mechanisms that responsible for the differences among these varieties, the tanshinones content was determined and comparative transcriptomics analysis was carried out during the tanshinones accumulation stage. A total of 52,216 unigenes were obtained from the transcriptome by RNA sequencing among which 23,369 genes were differentially expressed among different varieties, and 2,016 genes including 18 diterpenoid biosynthesis-related genes were differentially expressed during the tanshinones accumulation stage. Functional categorization of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among these varieties revealed that the pathway related to photosynthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, diterpenoid biosynthesis, terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis are the most differentially regulated processes in these varieties. The six tanshinone components in these varieties showed different dynamic changes in tanshinone accumulation stage. In addition, combined with the analysis of the dynamic changes, 277 DEGs (including one dehydrogenase, three CYP450 and 24 transcription factors belonging to 12 transcription factor families) related to the accumulation of tanshinones components were obtained. Furthermore, the KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of these 277 DEGs suggested that there might be an interconnection between the primary metabolic processes, signaling processes and the accumulation of tanshinones components. This study expands the vision of intraspecific variation and gene regulation mechanism of secondary metabolite biosynthesis pathways in medicinal plants from the “omics” perspective.

Integration of high-throughput omics technologies in medicinal plant research: The new era of natural drug discovery

“…The comparative transcriptome analysis of the marijuana strain Purple Kush and the ‘Finola’ cultivar of Cannabis sativa demonstrated that the Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase was detected in Purple Kush but replaced by cannabidiolic acid synthase in the ‘Finola’ cultivar, explaining the significant chemical difference between marijuana-derived Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) ( van Bakel et al., 2011 ). Moreover, transcriptional changes during tanshinones accumulation stage among different varieties of Salvia miltiorrhiza expanded our vision on intraspecific variation and gene regulation mechanism of secondary metabolite biosynthesis pathways ( Zhou et al., 2021b ). Interestingly, platycodin D content of calli was higher than that of leaves in Platycodon grandiflorus , while platycoside E content of calli was lower than that of leaves.…”

Editorial: Emerging contaminants and their effect on agricultural crops

“…Frequently changing global climatic conditions with serious fluctuations in temperature regimes (high, low or very low temperature), uneven precipitation patterns leading to flooding or drought conditions, high humidity, significant shift in sunshine duration in winters and summers significantly regulate the plant performance in general with heavy yield penalties and specifically reduce the active ingredients and chemical composition in medicinal plants ( Zobayed et al., 2005 ; Manish, 2022 ; Patni et al., 2022 ; Appiah et al., 2023 ; Shaban et al., 2023 ; Shrestha et al., 2023 ; Theodoridis et al., 2023 ). The medicinal plant, Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge also known as Danshen, belongs to the plant family Lamiaceae bears medicinal properties in traditional Chinese system of medicine to cure Alzheimer’s disease, myocardial infarction, and heart diseases including cerebrovascular diseases in various parts of China ( Miroddi et al., 2014 ; Ma et al., 2017 ; Cao et al., 2018 ; Ren et al., 2019 ; Guo et al., 2020 ; Zhou et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2022 ). The root extract of Danshen contains chemical constituents which can be divided into liposoluble tanshinones (tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA (TsIIA), tanshinone IIB, cryptotanshinone, and dihydrotanshinone I) and water-soluble phenolics (salvianolic acids) ( Ma et al., 2015 ; Deng et al., 2019 ; Shi et al., 2019 ; Sun et al., 2019 ), Therefore, it becomes imperative to investigate and understand the response of different genotypes of Danshen under different climatic regimes.…”

Deciphering the effects of genotype and climatic factors on the performance, active ingredients and rhizosphere soil properties of Salvia miltiorrhiza

“…Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Lamiaceae) is an important medicinal plant in traditional Chinese medicine. Its dried roots and rhizomes have been used for the treatment of heart diseases including myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease ( Zhou et al., 2021 ). The major active compounds in S. miltiorrhiza , water-soluble components (rosmarinic acid, and salvianolic acid B) and lipid-soluble components (tanshinone I, tanshinone ιI A, and cryptotanshinone), which are mainly accumulated in the roots and rhizomes ( Yang et al., 2016 ).…”