De novo transcriptome assembly based RNA-Seq and dynamic expression of key enzyme genes in baicalin biosynthetic pathway of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi

Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, a perennial herb, is an important medicinal plant that possesses broad pharmacological actions and contains flavonoids with good bioactivities such as anti-inflammation, anti-bacteria and anti-tumor. However, little is known on the molecular processes responsible for the medical properties of this species, owing to the absence of genomic resources such as available sequences of key enzyme genes in biosynthetic pathways. In this study, the RNA sequencing data of S. baicalensis were first generated and used for transcriptome analysis. Overall design: Root mRNA profiles of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi collected in October were generated by deep sequencing, in a mixture of three samples, using Illumina® Hiseq 2000 platform. qRT–PCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assays.