De novo transcriptome assembly and characterization of nine tissues of Lonicera japonica to identify potential candidate genes involved in chlorogenic acid, luteolosides, and secoiridoid biosynthesis pathways

In this study, we performed de novo transcriptome assembly forL. japonica, representing transcripts from nine different tissues. A total of 22  Gbps clean RNA-seq reads from nine tissues ofL. japonica were used, resulting in 243,185 unigenes, with 99,938 unigenes annotated based on a homology search using blastx against the NCBI-nr protein database. Unsupervised principal component analysis and correlation studies using transcript expression data from all nine tissues ofL. japonica showed relationships between tissues, explaining their association at different developmental stages. Homologs for all genes associated with chlorogenic acid, luteolin, and secoiridoid biosynthesis pathways were identified in theL. japonica transcriptome assembly. Expression of unigenes associated with chlorogenic acid was enriched in stems and leaf-2, unigenes from luteolin were enriched in stems and flowers, while unigenes from secoiridoid metabolic pathways were enriched in leaf-1 and shoot apex. Our results showed that different tissues ofL. japonica are enriched with sets of unigenes associated with specific pharmaceutically important metabolic pathways and, therefore, possess unique medicinal properties. The present study will serve as a resource for future attempts for functional characterization of enzyme coding genes within key metabolic processes.
Source: Journal of Natural Medicines - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research