Transcriptome analysis of polycyclic sesquiterpene biosynthesis in Leonurus sibiricus L.

Abstract

Background: Leonurus sibiricus L. is a kind of medicinal herb widely used in China possessing a range of pharmacological activities. Polycyclic sesquiterpenes, one of the major bioactive components of L. sibiricus mainly existed in the root tissues, show the antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiproliferative properties. However, for lacking of genome or transcriptome information, there is no report about terpene synthases (TPSs) genes of L. sibiricus. Results: In this research, six cDNA libraries were prepared from roots and leaves of L. sibiricus using the BGISEQ-500 platform. A total of 83,244 unigenes were finally obtained with an average length of 1,025 bp, of which 50,356 unigenes (60.49%) have annotations compared with BLAST searching results. 68 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were putative biosynthetic genes involved in sesquiterpene metabolism among which five unigenes were speculated to be related to ylangene, copaene, gurjunene, selinene and cadinol biosynthesis in L. sibiricus. Conclusions: This research is the first report of transcriptome analysis of L. sibiricus, and unigenes probably involved in the biosynthesis of polycyclic sesquiterpenes in L. sibiricus. Furthermore, this database will supply important clues to explore other biological characteristics genetically in L. sibiricus. Keywords: Leonurus sibiricus, Sesquiterpene biosynthesis, Polycyclic sesquiterpene synthases, Transcriptome