title: Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Mechanism Underlying the Production of a High Quantity of Chlorogenic Acid in Young Leaves of Lonicera macranthoides Hand.-Mazz.
abstract: Lonicera macranthoides Hand.-Mazz (L. macranthoides) is a medicinal herb that is widely distributed in southern China. The biosynthetic and metabolic pathways for a core secondary metabolite in L. macranthoides, chlorogenic acid (CGA), have been elucidated in many species. However, the mechanisms of CGA biosynthesis and the related gene regulatory network in L. macranthoides are still not well understood. In this study, CGA content was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and CGA levels differed significantly among three tissues; specifically, the CGA content in young leaves (YL) was greater than that in young stems (YS), which was greater than that in mature flowers (MF). Transcriptome analysis of L. macranthoides yielded a total of 53,533,014 clean reads (average length 90 bp) and 76,453 unigenes (average length 703 bp). A total of 3,767 unigenes were involved in biosynthesis pathways of secondary metabolites. Of these unigenes, 80 were possibly related to CGA biosynthesis. Furthermore, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened in different tissues including YL, MF and YS. In these tissues, 24 DEGs were found to be associated with CGA biosynthesis, including six phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) genes, six 4-coumarate coenzyme A ligase (4CL) genes, four cinnamate 4-Hydroxylase (C4H) genes, seven hydroxycinnamoyl transferase/hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA quinate transferase HCT/HQT genes and one coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H) gene.These results further the understanding of CGA biosynthesis and the related regulatory network in L. macranthoides.
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Research Center, School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China; College of Forestry and Life Science, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, China.
authors.forename: Zexiong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Research Center, School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: College of Forestry and Life Science, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, China.
authors.forename: Yuming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: College of Forestry and Life Science, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, China.
authors.forename: Jianbin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: College of Forestry and Life Science, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, China.
authors.forename: Yiqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Research Center, School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
authors.forename: Zhengguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways; D002726:Chlorogenic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D063990:Gene Ontology; D031239:Lonicera / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002726:Chlorogenic Acid