Transcriptomics comparison reveals the diversity of ethylene and methyl-jasmonate in roles of TIA metabolism in Catharanthus roseus

• Published in: BMC genomics Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 508 - 14
• Main Authors: Pan, Ya-jie, Lin, Ying-chao, Yu, Bo-fan, Zu, Yuan-gang, Yu, Fang, Tang, Zhong-Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 02.07.2018; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: ABC transporter; ABC transporters; Accumulation; Acetates - pharmacology; Alkaloids; Analysis; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters - genetics; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters - metabolism; Biosynthesis; Biosynthetic Pathways - drug effects; Biosynthetic Pathways - genetics; Cancer therapies; Catharanthus - genetics; Catharanthus - metabolism; Catharanthus roseus; Cyclopentanes - pharmacology; DNA sequencing; Ethylene; Ethylenes - pharmacology; Feedback loops; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - drug effects; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - genetics; Gene sequencing; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genetic engineering; Genomes; Genomics; Herbal medicine; Hormones; Indoles; Jasmonates; Leaves; Madagascar periwinkle; Medicinal plants; Metabolism; Metabolites; Methyl-jasmonate; Multivariate analysis; Next-generation sequencing; Oxylipins - pharmacology; Phenolic compounds; Phenols; Physiological aspects; Plant Leaves - genetics; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plant Roots - genetics; Plant Roots - metabolism; Positive feedback; Principal Component Analysis; Principal components analysis; Proteins; Roots; Secologanin Tryptamine Alkaloids - chemistry; Secologanin Tryptamine Alkaloids - metabolism; Secondary metabolites; Terpenoid indole alkaloids; Transcription (Genetics); Transcription factors; Transcriptome - drug effects; Vinblastine; Vindoline; Catharanthus roseus; Terpenoid indole alkaloids; Next-generation sequencing; ABC transporter; Methyl-jasmonate; Ethylene
• DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-4879-3
• ISSN: 1471-2164

The medicinal plant, Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus), accumulates a wide range of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs). Ethylene (ET) and methyl-jasmonate (MeJA) were previously reported as effective elicitors for the production of various valuable secondary metabolites of C. roseus, while a few ET or MeJA induced transcriptomic research is yet reported on this species. In this study, the de-novo transcriptome assembly of C. roseus is performed by using the next-generation sequencing technology. The result shows that phenolic biosynthesis genes respond specifically to ET in leaves, monoterpenoid biosynthesis genes respond specifically to MeJA in roots. By screening the database, 23 ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter partial sequences are identified in C. roseus. On this basis, more than 80 key genes that encode key enzymes (namely TIA pathway, transcriptional factor (TF) and candidate ABC transporter) of alkaloid synthesis in TIA biosynthetic pathways are chosen to explore the integrative responses to ET and MeJA at the transcriptional level. Our data indicated that TIA accumulation is strictly regulated by the TF ethylene responsive factor (ERF) and bHLH iridoid synthesis 1 (BIS1). The heatmap, combined with principal component analysis (PCA) of C. roseus, shows that ERF co-expression with ABC2 and ABC8 specific expression in roots affect the root-specific accumulation of vinblastine in C. roseus. On the contrast, BIS1 activities follow a similar pattern of ABC3 and CrTPT2 specific expression in leaves, which affects the leaf-specific accumulation of vindoline in C. roseus. Results presented above illustrate that ethylene has a stronger effect than MeJA on TIA induction at both transcriptional and metabolite level. Furthermore, meta-analysis reveals that ERF and BIS1 form a positive feedback loop connecting two ABC transporters respectively and are actively involved in TIAs responding to ET and MeJA in C. roseus.