Transcriptome Analysis of Medicinal Plant Salvia miltiorrhiza and Identification of Genes Related to Tanshinone Biosynthesis

Lei Yang,Yukun Wei,Haining Cheng,Changqing Yang,Xiaoya Chen,Haiyan Lin,Guohui Ding,Xin Fang,Yu Kong,Renyi Liu,Lingiian Wang,Brett Neilan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080464

Abstract

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, a perennial plant of Lamiaceae, accumulates abietane-type diterpenoids of tanshinones in root, which have been used as traditional Chinese medicine to treat neuroasthenic insomnia and cardiovascular diseases. However, to date the biosynthetic pathway of tanshinones is only partially elucidated and the mechanism for their root-specific accumulation remains unknown. To identify enzymes and transcriptional regulators involved in the biosynthesis of tanshinones, we conducted transcriptome profiling of S. miltiorrhiza root and leaf tissues using the 454 GS-FLX pyrosequencing platform, which generated 550,546 and 525,292 reads, respectively. RNA sequencing reads were assembled and clustered into 64,139 unigenes (29,883 isotigs and 34,256 singletons). NCBI non-redundant protein databases (NR) and Swiss-Prot database searches anchored 32,096 unigenes (50%) with functional annotations based on sequence similarities. Further assignments with Gene Ontology (GO) terms and KEGG biochemical pathways identified 168 unigenes referring to the terpenoid backbone biosynthesis (including 144 MEP and MVA pathway genes and 24 terpene synthases). Comparative analysis of the transcriptomes identified 2,863 unigenes that were highly expressed in roots, including those encoding enzymes of early steps of tanshinone biosynthetic pathway, such as copalyl diphosphate synthase (SmCPS), kaurene synthase-like (SmKSL) and CYP76AH1. Other differentially expressed unigenes predicted to be related to tanshinone biosynthesis fall into cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, dehydrogenases and reductases, as well as regulatory factors. In addition, 21 P450 genes were selectively confirmed by real-time PCR. Thus we have generated a large unigene dataset which provides a valuable resource for further investigation of the radix development and biosynthesis of tanshinones.

Highlights

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is a perennial plant in the genus Salvia of the Lamiaceae family
To make sure that the root and leaf samples under investigation had a striking difference in tanshinones accumulation, we performed High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analyses of their methanol extracts
We found that the levels of tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, dihydrotanshinone I and tanshinone IIA were high in root, but barely detected in leaf (Figure S1)

Summary

Introduction

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is a perennial plant in the genus Salvia of the Lamiaceae family. The active ingredients in S. miltiorrhiza are considered to contain both hydrophilic and lipophilic components. The hydrophilic phenolic acids include rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B, lithospermic acid and dihydroxyphenyllactic acid or Danshensu, and they may function as antibacterial, anti-oxidative and antiviral reagents [2,3]. The lipophilic diterpenoid components are generally known as tanshinones, including structurally related tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, cryptotanshinone, and dihydrotanshinone I. All these diterpenoids share the abietane-type skeletons, and tanshinone IIA is considered to be the most important bioactive component [4,5] (Figure 1)

Methods

Results

Conclusion