Abstract
Cordyceps militaris, a valuable edible and medicinal fungus, has attracted increasing attention because of its various bioactive ingredients. However, the biosynthetic pathway of C. militaris carotenoids is still unknown due to lack of transcriptome information. To uncover genes related to the biosynthesis of C. militaris carotenoids, the transcriptomes of mycelia CM10_D cultured under dark conditions and mycelia CM10_L cultured under light exposure conditions were sequenced. Compared with mycelia CM10_D, 866 up-regulated genes and 856 down-regulated genes were found in mycelia CM10_L. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) indicated that DEGs were mainly classified into the “metabolic process,” “membrane,” and “catalytic activity” terms. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs suggested that DEGs were mainly enriched in “metabolic pathways,” “MAPK signaling pathway-yeast,” and “biosynthesis of secondary metabolites.” In addition, the carotenoid content of the Cmtns gene deletion mutant (ΔCmtns) was significantly lower than that of the wild-type C. militaris CM10, while the carotenoid content of the complementary strain (ΔCmtns-c) of the Cmtns gene was not significantly different from that of C. militaris CM10, suggesting that the Cmtns gene significantly affected the biosynthesis of carotenoids in C. militaris. These results potentially pave the way for revealing the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids and improving carotenoids production in C. militaris.
Highlights
Cordyceps militaris, as a model species of Cordyceps fungi, is widely used as a nourishing food and used in traditional Chinese medicine in East Asia (Zhang et al, 2018; Kunhorm et al, 2019)
The mycelia (CM10_D) of C. militaris cultured under dark conditions was pure white, and the mycelia (CM10_L) of C. militaris cultured under light exposure conditions was orange
The results suggested that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were located in the pathways of “metabolic pathways,” “MAPK signaling pathway-yeast,” and “biosynthesis of secondary metabolites,” which indicated that these DEGs were mainly involved in cell metabolism and signal transduction (Figure 3)
Summary
As a model species of Cordyceps fungi, is widely used as a nourishing food and used in traditional Chinese medicine in East Asia (Zhang et al, 2018; Kunhorm et al, 2019). It is noteworthy that C. militaris contains cordycepin and pentostatin which O. sinensis does not contain (Xia et al, 2017). These bioactive ingredients endow C. militaris with anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-cancer, anti-oxidation, and hypoglycemic activities (Zhang et al, 2006; Lee et al, 2015; Kim et al, 2017; Hu et al, 2019; Liu et al, 2019). The pigments contained in C. militaris were first considered to be carotenoids and water-soluble (Friederichsen and Engel, 1958). It is urgent to study the biosynthetic pathway and related genes of C. militaris carotenoids in order to improve the content of carotenoids by genetic engineering
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