Identification of microRNA in Houttuynia cordata Thunb and prediction of cross kingdom functions

Jiajian He,Yongliang Zhang,Ting Chen,Meng Li,Qingyun Xi,Haojie Zhang,Jiahan Wu,Jiajie Sun,Bin Zeng,Junyi Luo

doi:10.1186/s41544-019-0028-7

Abstract

Houttuynia cordata Thunb (Family: Saururaceae) is well known as a traditional medicine plant and widely spread in China, Japan and India. It had been reported to have potential functions such as anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory in human. Recently, it has been reported that the plant-derived microRNA(miRNA) possibly transported from one species to another and exerted a cross kingdom regulation, and miRNA has been considered as medicinal ingredents in herbs. However, knowledge is still rare about miRNAs in H. cordata. In this study we identified 163 conserved miRNAs and 30 novel miRNAs by high-throughput sequencing, and then randomly selected miRNA’s expression trend was identified by q-PCR, which was consistent with the sequencing result. Further bioinformatics analyses showed that the targets of H. cordata miRNAs were enriched in endocrine and other factor-regulated calcium reabsorption pathways, melanogenesis, insulin signaling pathway, and aldosterone -regulated sodium reabsorption pathways. These results will be helpful to understand new active components in H. cordata as food and traditional Chinese medicine. This study is the first report of miRNAs in H. cordata, and provides valuable data for further understanding the cross kingdom function of active components in H.cordata.

Highlights

Houttuynia cordata Thunb (H.cordata), is a perennial native medicinal plant widely used in folk medicine in Japan, Korea, China and Southeast Asia [1]
In 2014, Hyun Kang reported that H.cordata extract (HCE) significantly attenuated lipid accumulation in human HepG2 hepatocytes, and the hypolipidemic effects of HCE were induced by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling which inhibits lipid biosynthesis [12]
Construction of the H.cordata small RNA library by highthroughput sequencing To identify the miRNAs in H. cordata, a small RNA library from commercial H. cordata was constructed and analyzed by high-throughput sequencing

Summary

Introduction

Houttuynia cordata Thunb (H.cordata), is a perennial native medicinal plant widely used in folk medicine in Japan, Korea, China and Southeast Asia [1]. It is well known that H. cordata has a wide range of biological activities, miRNAs of H.cordata still remain unknown. We used high-throughput sequencing and qPCR, and identified conserved and novel miRNAs in H.cordata, and further analysed the miRNAs functions in H.cordata via bioinformatics analysis. This is the first reporte about miRNAs of H.cordata and will provide foundation for further understanding of active components in herbs

Methods

Results

Conclusion