Identification of key genes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis in Digitalis purpurea

Abstract

The medicinal plant Digitalis purpurea produces cardiac glycosides that are useful in the pharmaceutical industry. These bioactive compounds are in high demand due to ethnobotany’s application to therapeutic procedures. Recent studies have investigated the role of integrative analysis of multi-omics data in understanding cellular metabolic status through systems metabolic engineering approach, as well as its application to genetically engineering metabolic pathways. In spite of numerous omics experiments, most molecular mechanisms involved in metabolic pathways biosynthesis in D. purpurea remain unclear. Using R Package Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis, co-expression analysis was performed on the transcriptome and metabolome data. As a result of our study, we identified transcription factors, transcriptional regulators, protein kinases, transporters, non-coding RNAs, and hub genes that are involved in the production of secondary metabolites. Since jasmonates are involved in the biosynthesis of cardiac glycosides, the candidate genes for Scarecrow-Like Protein 14 (SCL14), Delta24-sterol reductase (DWF1), HYDRA1 (HYD1), and Jasmonate-ZIM domain3 (JAZ3) were validated under methyl jasmonate treatment (MeJA, 100 μM). Despite early induction of JAZ3, which affected downstream genes, it was dramatically suppressed after 48 hours. SCL14, which targets DWF1, and HYD1, which induces cholesterol and cardiac glycoside biosynthesis, were both promoted. The correlation between key genes and main metabolites and validation of expression patterns provide a unique insight into the biosynthesis mechanisms of cardiac glycosides in D. purpurea.

A Comparison of the Antioxidant Potential and Metabolite Analysis of Marine Fungi Associated with the Red Algae Pterocladiella capillacea from Northern Taiwan

“…In the field of cardiology, the discovery of digitoxigenin bisdigitoxide and digitoxigenin 3-[glucosyl-(1->6)-glucosyl-(1->4)-2,6-dideoxyribohexoside] is noteworthy. These derivatives of digitoxigenin, a well-known cardiac glycoside, hold significance [ 56 , 74 , 75 , 76 ]. Cardiac glycosides boast a rich historical legacy in the treatment of heart-related conditions.…”

“…Sucrose octaacetate serves as a versatile component in pesticide products, functioning as an inert ingredient in insect repellents, herbicides, flea and tick sprays, and various other insecticides [ 58 ]. Sucrose octaacetate, aside from its role in pest control, finds diverse commercial applications, including impregnating and insulating papers, as well as contributing to the formulation of lacquers and plastics [ 75 ]. It possesses a molecular formula of C 28 H 38 O 19 and a molecular weight of 678.6 g/mol, with its IUPAC name being [(2R,3R,4S,5R,6R)-3,4,5-triacetyloxy-6-[(2S,3S,4R,5R)-3,4-diacetyloxy-2,5-bis(acetyloxymethyl)oxolan-2-yl] oxyoxan-2-yl] methyl acetate.…”

Integrative systems biology analysis of barley transcriptome ─ hormonal signaling against biotic stress

“…This power makes the adjacency matrix to be the continuous value between 0 and 1 and the co-expression similarity was raising to achieve scale-free topology. Following, the Topological Overlap Matrix (TOM) [ 69 , 70 ] was calculated for hierarchical clustering analysis. Then, to discover modules, a dissimilarity matrix is obtained (dissTOM) that resulted in genes with similar expression clustered in the same gene module.…”