Abstract
Panax notoginseng is famous for its important therapeutic effects and commonly used worldwide. The active ingredients saponins have distinct contents in different tissues of P. notoginseng, and they may be related to the expression of key genes in the synthesis pathway. In our study, high-performance liquid chromatography results indicated that the contents of protopanaxadiol-(Rb1, Rc, Rb2, and Rd) and protopanaxatriol-type (R1, Rg1, and Re) saponins in below ground tissues were higher than those in above ground tissues. Clustering dendrogram and PCA analysis suggested that the below and above ground tissues were clustered into two separate groups. A total of 482 and 882 unigenes were shared in the below and above ground tissues, respectively. A total of 75 distinct expressions of CYPs transcripts (RPKM ≥ 10) were detected. Of these transcripts, 38 and 37 were highly expressed in the below ground and above ground tissues, respectively. RT-qPCR analysis showed that CYP716A47 gene was abundantly expressed in the above ground tissues, especially in the flower, whose expression was 31.5-fold higher than that in the root. CYP716A53v2 gene was predominantly expressed in the below ground tissues, especially in the rhizome, whose expression was 20.1-fold higher than that in the flower. Pearson’s analysis revealed that the CYP716A47 expression was significantly correlated with the contents of ginsenoside Rc and Rb2. The CYP716A53v2 expression was associated with the saponin contents of protopanaxadiol-type (Rb1 and Rd) and protopanaxatriol-type (R1, Rg1, and Re). Results indicated that the expression patterns of CYP716A47 and CYP716A53v2 were correlated with the distribution of protopanaxadiol-type and protopanaxatriol-type saponins in P. notoginseng. This study identified the pivotal genes regulating saponin distribution and provided valuable information for further research on the mechanisms of saponin synthesis, transportation, and accumulation.
Highlights
This study aimed to identify the main genes regulating the distribution of protopanaxadioland protopanaxatriol-type saponins in different parts of P. notoginseng based on the integrated analysis of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and transcriptome
The CYP716A53v2 expression was associated with the contents of notoginsenoside R1 (R = 0.956, p < 0.01), ginsenoside Rg1 (R = 0.991, p < 0.01), Re (R = 0.999, p < 0.01), Rb1 (R = 0.918, p < 0.01), Rd (R = 0.926, p < 0.01), PTS (R = 0.994, p < 0.01), and total saponins (R = 0.921, p < 0.01). These results suggested that CYP716A47 and CYP716A53v2 likely regulated the distribution of protopanaxadiol- and protopanaxatriol-type saponins in the below ground and above ground tissues of P. notoginseng
The transcripts were different in the below ground and above ground tissues of P. notoginseng
Summary
H. Chen is a widely used herbal medicine with important pharmacological effects, such as anti-hypertensive, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory estrogen-like, anti-atherosclerotic, anti-tumor, and hepatoprotective activities [1,2,3,4]. P. notoginseng are attributed to its bioactive constituents, namely, triterpene saponins, which are known as ginsenosides. These saponins can be categorized into two groups based on the skeleton of their aglycones, namely, dammarane-type and oleanane-type saponins [5,6]. Dammarane-type saponins commonly include notoginsenoside R1 and ginsenosides Rb1, Rb2, Rc, Rd, Re, Rd, Rf, and Rg1 [7]. Different parts of P. notoginseng contain various types of saponins and show diverse pharmacological activities [3,9]
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