Comparative metabolomics reveals the metabolic variations between two endangered Taxus species (T. fuana and T. yunnanensis) in the Himalayas

Abstract

BackgroundPlants of the genus Taxus have attracted much attention owing to the natural product taxol, a successful anti-cancer drug. T. fuana and T. yunnanensis are two endangered Taxus species mainly distributed in the Himalayas. In our study, an untargeted metabolomics approach integrated with a targeted UPLC-MS/MS method was applied to examine the metabolic variations between these two Taxus species growing in different environments.ResultsThe level of taxol in T. yunnanensis is much higher than that in T. fuana, indicating a higher economic value of T. yunnanensis for taxol production. A series of specific metabolites, including precursors, intermediates, competitors of taxol, were identified. All the identified intermediates are predominantly accumulated in T. yunnanensis than T. fuana, giving a reasonable explanation for the higher accumulation of taxol in T. yunnanensis. Taxusin and its analogues are highly accumulated in T. fuana, which may consume limited intermediates and block the metabolic flow towards taxol. The contents of total flavonoids and a majority of tested individual flavonoids are significantly accumulated in T. fuana than T. yunnanensis, indicating a stronger environmental adaptiveness of T. fuana.ConclusionsSystemic metabolic profiling may provide valuable information for the comprehensive industrial utilization of the germplasm resources of these two endangered Taxus species growing in different environments.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1412-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…The metabolites eluted based on the column were detected using the Triple TOF 5600 plus high-resolution tandem mass spectrometer (SCIEX, UK), and Q-TOF operated under the negative and positive ion modes [92]. The ion source gases 1 and 2 were both set at 60 psi, while the curtain gas was set at 30 psi, and temperature of interface heater was set at 650°C.…”

Differential Responses to Climate and Land-Use Changes in Threatened Chinese Taxus Species

“…However, the influence of climate and land-use changes have largely been explored independently [12,13]. In fact, climate and land-use changes are unlikely to separately affect species distributions [10,14]. Landscape structure and composition can effectively mediate the habitat availability and suitability [4,15].…”

“…China harbors five Taxus species, which are discontinuously distributed in the mountains of eastern and southern China [22,23]. Unfortunately, Taxus plants have experienced severe degeneration due to human disturbance [14,23]. Hence, all Taxus species have been listed as endangered species and first-class national protected plants.…”

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