Abstract
Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus) and Vinca minor (V. minor) are two common important medical plants belonging to the family Apocynaceae. In this study, we used non-targeted GC-MS and targeted LC-MS metabolomics to dissect the metabolic profile of two plants with comparable phenotypic and metabolic differences. A total of 58 significantly different metabolites were present in different quantities according to PCA and PLS-DA score plots of the GC-MS analysis. The 58 identified compounds comprised 16 sugars, eight amino acids, nine alcohols and 18 organic acids. We subjected these metabolites into KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and highlighted 27 metabolic pathways, concentrated on the TCA cycle, glycometabolism, oligosaccharides, and polyol and lipid transporter (RFOS). Among the primary metabolites, trehalose, raffinose, digalacturonic acid and gallic acid were revealed to be the most significant marker compounds between the two plants, presumably contributing to species-specific phenotypic and metabolic discrepancy. The profiling of nine typical alkaloids in both plants using LC-MS method highlighted higher levels of crucial terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) intermediates of loganin, serpentine, and tabersonine in V. minor than in C. roseus. The possible underlying process of the metabolic flux from primary metabolism pathways to TIA synthesis was discussed and proposed. Generally speaking, this work provides a full-scale comparison of primary and secondary metabolites between two medical plants and a metabolic explanation of their TIA accumulation and phenotype differences.
Highlights
Catharanthus roseus and Vinca minor are evergreen perennial plants belonging to the familyApocynaceae, well known as medicinal and ornamental plants around the world [1,2]
Regarding the contents of terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) detected in the two species, we found that the V. minor leaves accumulated higher levels of loganin (17.6-fold), tabersonine (2.7-fold) and serpentine (117.9-fold), and a lower level of tryptamine than did C. roseus (Figure 5, Table S7)
We utilized the widely non-targeted GC-MS method for the direct chemical screening of the primary metabolites related to morphology and development
Summary
Apocynaceae, well known as medicinal and ornamental plants around the world [1,2] Their main metabolites, terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs), are widely used to treat human diseases [3]. The most widely used TIA is vincamine, which has modulatory effects on brain circulation and neuronal homeostasis, as well as antihypoxic and neuroprotective potencies. It has been used for the prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular insufficiencies and a variety of cerebral disorders; it is as an active ingredient in dietary supplements used as smart drugs, cognitive enhancers or nootropics [3,5,6]. Many of the TIAs are anticancer agents, which includes ajmalicine, catharanthine, serpentine, vindoline, vinblastine, and Molecules 2017, 22, 997; doi:10.3390/molecules22060997 www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules
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