Integration of transcriptomics and metabolomics to reveal the mechanism of allyl isothiocyanate delaying postharvest quality deterioration of Coprinus comatus

Abstract

The regulatory mechanism underlying allyl isothiocyanate (AITC)-mediated quality maintenance in postharvest Coprinus comatus fruiting bodies remains unclear. Herein, transcriptomics and metabolomics were applied to investigate the potential protective mechanism of AITC. Metabolomics analysis revealed that 189 differentially accumulated metabolites were identified and AITC significantly regulated the metabolic pathways (ko01100). Transcriptomics data demonstrated that a total of 2484, 2990 and 437 differentially expressed gens (DEGs) were determined in CON12 vs CON0, AITC12 vs CON0 and AITC12 vs CON12, respectively. The expression of 66 DEGs was markedly reversed by AITC. KEGG analysis indicated that these DEGs were mainly involved in galactose metabolism (ko00052) and sphingolipid metabolism (ko00600), which was also highlighted by the omics integrated analysis. In detail, AITC enhanced the biosynthesis of cell wall polysaccharides via up-regulation of aldose 1-epimerase and UTP-glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase, as well as suppressed the degradation of glucan via down-regulation of alpha-galactosidase. Meanwhile, AITC evidently hindered the excessive accumulation of cytotoxic intermediates in sphingolipid metabolism and reduced the generation of ROS mainly through down-regulating the key rate-limiting enzyme, serine palmitoyltransferase. Overall, AITC effectively maintained cell wall integrity and mitigated oxidative damage on mushroom cells. In addition, the expression of 24 transcription factors was significantly regulated by AITC, and they were mainly from GATA, GRAS, NAC and C2H2 families. These findings indicated that AITC is a promising preservative for alleviating quality deterioration of postharvest edible mushrooms.