title: Use of the metabolomics approach to characterize Chinese medicinal material Huangqi.
abstract: Integration of the genetic and metabolic fingerprinting can provide a new approach to differentiate similar Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) materials. Two leguminous plants, Mojia Huangqi and Menggu Huangqi, are important medical herbs and share great similarities in morphology, chemical constituent, and genomic DNA sequence. The taxonomy of Mojia Huangqi and Menggu Huangqi has been debated for more than 50 years and discrimination of TCM materials directly affects the pharmacological and clinical effects. AFLP based genetic fingerprinting and GC-TOF/MS-based metabolic fingerprinting were used to successfully discriminate the two species. The results of AFLP supported the opinion that Menggu Huangqi was a variant of Mojia Huangqi. The metabolic fingerprinting showed growth locations have greater impacts on the metabolite composition and quantity than the genotypes (cultivated versus wild) in Menggu Huangqi. The difference of some soluble sugars, fatty acids, proline, and polyamine reflected plant adaptation to different growth environments. Using multivariate and univariate statistical analysis, three AFLP markers and eight metabolites were identified as candidate DNA and metabolic markers to distinguish the two herb materials. The correlation network between AFLP markers and metabolites revealed a complex correlation network, which indicated the special metabolic pathways and the regulation networks of Huangqi.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun Xiangshan Road, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Li-Xin
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Tian-Lu
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ye-Qing
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Guang-Hong
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Ai-Hua
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Lu-Qi
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xiaoquan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qi
mesh_terms: D054458:Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000378:metabolism*; D005819:Genetic Markers; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005819:Genetic Markers