Abstract
Artemisinin, an important compound produced by Artemisia annua, is the active ingredient in the treatment of malaria. Jasmonic acid, one of the phytohormones, is an important elicitor of artemisinin biosynthesis by enhancing transcription levels of transcription factors. SPL transcription factors are plant-specific transcription factors of plant growth, development, and secondary metabolism regulation. However, to date, the SPL transcription factors that regulate artemisinin biosynthesis is currently unclear. Here, we show that an SPL transcription factor can positively regulate artemisinin biosynthesis by binding to the promoter of artemisinin biosynthetic pathway genes. We screened AaSPL2 by gene expression profiles analysis in 14 SPL transcription factors. We demonstrated that AaSPL2 can activate the promoter of DBR2 by dual-LUC assy. Moreover, in the AaSPL2 overexpression plants, the artemisinin content was increased by 33–86%, and in the AaSPL2 -RNAi transgenic plants, artemisinin content was decreased by 33–65%. These data suggest that AaSPL2 and DBR2 interact with a “GTAC” cis-element in the DBR2 promoter, mediating the transcriptional activation of DBR2 in response to JA and resulting in the improvement on artemisinin content.
Highlights
Malaria is a global infectious disease that 3.3 billion people are easy to infect it
Since jasmonic acid (JA) and its cyclic precursors and derivatives play important roles in inducing the genes encoding enzymes involving in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in the plant (Van der Fits and Memelink, 2000; De Boer et al, 2011)
It was shown that overexpression of artemisinin biosynthetic pathway genes (ADS, CYP71AV1, artemisinic aldehyde 11(13) reductase (DBR2), aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1), CPR) can redirect carbon flux to the artemisinin pathway and increase artemisinin contents for several folds (Chen et al, 2013; Shi et al, 2017a)
Summary
Malaria is a global infectious disease that 3.3 billion people are easy to infect it. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) has been the frontline treatment for malaria in recent years (World Health Organization, 2014). Artemisinin is produced in the glandular trichomes of Artemisia annua L (Duke and Paul, 1993). The artemisinin biosynthetic pathway is well studied (Figure 1).
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