The application and future prospect of RNA-Seq technology in Chinese medicinal plants

Abstract

RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a newly developed method to analyze gene function and interaction at the omics level, which is widely used in frontier field in molecular biology and other fields. In recent years, this technology has been intensively used in the research of medicinal plants, and growing number of reports are published. In this study, we briefly introduced the research background of RNA-Seq, and have systematically organized relevant literature and reviewed the application of transcriptome sequencing in the research of medicinal plants in recent years from the aspects of functional gene mining and secondary metabolite pathway exploration, so as to provide research on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) based on RNA-Seq technology. Moreover, we introduced the specific application of several common medicinal plants, and discussed the application of this technology in the protection of germplasm resources, metabolomics, and optimal breeding of medicinal plants, in order to provide a reference for the study of systematic genomics of medicinal plants.