Abstract
Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC., named “Cangzhu” in China, which belongs to the Asteraceae family. In some countries of Southeast Asia (China, Thailand, Korea, Japan etc.) its rhizome, commonly called rhizoma atractylodis, is used to treat many diseases as it contains a variety of sesquiterpenoids and other components of medicinal importance. Despite its medicinal value, the information of the sesquiterpenoid biosynthesis is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the transcriptome analysis of different tissues of non-model plant A. lancea by using short read sequencing technology (Illumina). We found 62,352 high quality unigenes with an average sequence length of 913 bp in the transcripts of A. Lancea. Among these, 43,049 (69.04%), 30,264 (48.53%), 26,233 (42.07%), 17,881 (28.67%) and 29,057(46.60%) unigenes showed significant similarity (E-value<1e-5) to known proteins in Nr, KEGG, SWISS-PROT, GO, and COG databases, respectively. Of the total 62,352 unigenes, 43,049 (Nr Database) open reading frames were predicted. On the basis of different bioinformatics tools we identify all the enzymes that take part in the terpenoid biosynthesis as well as five different known sesquiterpenoids via cytosolic mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway and plastidal methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathways. In our study, 6, 864 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) were also found as great potential markers in A. lancea. This transcriptomic resource of A. lancea provides a great contribution in advancement of research for this specific medicinal plant and more specifically for the gene mining of different classes of terpenoids and other chemical compounds that have medicinal as well as economic importance.
Highlights
The plant Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC., known as “Cangzhu” in China, “Khod-Kha-Mao” in Thailand [1] and its name in Japan is “So-ju-tsu”[1, 2]
These data sizes are bigger than those from peanut (Arachis hypogaea) [44], yellow horn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) [50], siberian apricot (Prunus sibirica) [51] and Centella (Centella asiatica) [52], suggesting that the relatively complete read databases were successfully constructed from different tissues of A. lancea by Illumina sequencing
We found that the sum of unigenes (62,352) in A. lancea is more than the identified number of unigenes 59,236 in peanut (A. hypogaea) [44], 51,867 unigenes in yellow horn (X. sorbifolium) [50] and 46,940 unigenes in Siberian apricot (P. sibirica) [51]
Summary
The plant Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC., known as “Cangzhu” in China, “Khod-Kha-Mao” in Thailand [1] and its name in Japan is “So-ju-tsu”[1, 2]. A. lancea belongs to the Asteraceae family. The rhizome of A. lancea, generally called rhizoma atractylodes is used for treatment of influenza, rheumatic diseases, night blindness and a few digestive problems [3,4,5]. The history of using rhizomes of A. lancea as a drug can be traced back to Han dynasty (206BC-220AD), when it was described in Shen-nong-ben-cao-jing, the first Chinese pharmacopoeia. Later it was found that this herb include two species, A. lancea and A. Chinensis (DC.) Koids, known “Mao CangZhu” and “Bei CangZhu” separately in China and people have used these together as rhizoma Atractylodes [6]
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