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Abstract
The Dendrobium plants (members of the Orchidaceae family) are used as traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. Bibenzyl, one of the active compounds in Dendrobium officinale, occurs in low amounts among different tissues. However, market demands require a higher content of thes compounds to meet the threshold for drug production. There is, therefore, an immediate need to dissect the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying how bibenzyl compounds are biosynthesized in D. officinale tissues. In this study, the accumulation of erianin and gigantol in tissues were studied as representative compounds of bibenzyl. Exogenous application of Methyl-Jasmonate (MeJA) promotes the biosynthesis of bibenzyl compounds; therefore, transcriptomic analyses were conducted between D. officinale-treated root tissues and a control. Our results show that the root tissues contained the highest content of bibenzyl (erianin and gigantol). We identified 1342 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with 912 up-regulated and 430 down-regulated genes in our transcriptome dataset. Most of the identified DEGs are functionally involved in the JA signaling pathway and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. We also identified two candidate cytochrome P450 genes and nine other enzymatic genes functionally involved in bibenzyl biosynthesis. Our study provides insights on the identification of critical genes associated with bibenzyl biosynthesis and accumulation in Dendrobium plants, paving the way for future research on dissecting the physiological and molecular mechanisms of bibenzyl synthesis in plants as well as guide genetic engineering for the improvement of Dendrobium varieties through increasing bibenzyl content for drug production and industrialization.
Highlights
IntroductionPlants produce vital secondary metabolites for growth and development and in response to environmental stresses
This study focused on identifying putative genes associated with the bibenzyl biosynthesis in Dendrobium plants, which will aid our understanding of unique genes involved in the synthesis of bibenzyl in D. officinale, and provide new insights for future research into the molecular mechanisms of the genes involved in bibenzyl biosynthesis
Based on our investigation on the bibenzyl accumulation in various tissues, we found that bibenzyl compounds mostly accumulate in the root tissues of D. officinale
Summary
Plants produce vital secondary metabolites for growth and development and in response to environmental stresses These secondary metabolites (such as alkaloids, phenolics, flavonoids, and terpenoids) often accumulate within a specific group of plants and tissues, which play crucial roles in helping plants in defense against various biotic and abiotic stresses [1,2,3]. The Dendrobium plants belong to the family Orchidaceae and are used as traditional Chinese medicinal herbs (referred to as shihu in Mandarin). They are widely distributed across Asia and the Pacific Islands [7]. Previous studies have found that bibenzyl compounds (belonging to sesquiterpene alkaloids) might be the only bioactive ingredients in D. officinale [12,13]
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