Metabolomic analysis of methyl jasmonate treatment on phytocannabinoid production in Cannabis sativa

Abstract

Cannabis sativa is a multi-use and chemically complex plant which is utilized for food, fiber, and medicine. Plants produce a class of psychoactive and medicinally important specialized metabolites referred to as phytocannabinoids (PCs). The phytohormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is a naturally occurring methyl ester of jasmonic acid and a product of oxylipin biosynthesis which initiates and regulates the biosynthesis of a broad range of specialized metabolites across a number of diverse plant lineages. While the effects of exogenous MeJA application on PC production has been reported, treatments have been constrained to a narrow molar range and to the targeted analysis of a small number of compounds. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry with data-dependent acquisition, we examined the global metabolomic effects of MeJA in C. sativa to explore oxylipin-mediated regulation of PC biosynthesis and accumulation. A dose–response relationship was observed, with an almost two-fold increase in PC content found in inflorescences of female clones treated with 15 mM MeJA compared to the control group. Comparison of the inflorescence metabolome across MeJA treatments coupled with targeted transcript analysis was used to elucidate key regulatory components contributing to PC production and metabolism more broadly. Revealing these biological signatures improves our understanding of the role of the oxylipin pathway in C. sativa and provides putative molecular targets for the metabolic engineering and optimization of chemical phenotype for medicinal and industrial end-uses.

Characterization of theCannabis sativaglandular trichome epigenome

“…Nonetheless, our approach yielded a large repertoire of enhancer-gene pairs where the genes have known glandular trichome specific functions, including CBDAS (LOC115697762), terpenoid synthases (LOC115724563, LOC115719748, LOC115716064, LOC115716405), and metabolite transporters (LOC115716265, LOC115711415) [66,87,96,97]. Moreover, the data brought highlighted a glandular trichome specific alkenal NADP reductase (LOC115695656) that is a candidate for the twice postulated alkenal NADP reductase involved in the biosynthesis of hexanoate and production of cannabinoids downstream [76,77]. Our approach was limited to 2-dimensional space, and therefore could not consider potential 3D interactions between enhancers and cognate promoters in cis and trans, that would likely identify potential interactions for many more of the putative CREs we predicted.…”