De novo RNA-sequencing and transcriptome analysis of Aconitum carmichaelii to analyze key genes involved in the biosynthesis of diterpene alkaloids

In this study, we have performed Illumina based RNA sequencing to characterize the transcriptome and expression profiles of genes expressed in 4 tissues of A. carmichaelii. RNA sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly fo A. carmichaelii resulted in a total of 128,183 unigenes with 56,928 unigenes being annotated using NCBI-nr database. Transcriptome profile and analysis for 4 tissues of A. carmichaelii showed that unigenes annotated as possible rate-determining steps of aconitine-type biosynthetic pathway were highly expressed in the root. Overall design: Examination of 4 tissues of Aconitum carmichaelii using Illumina HiSeq paired end RNA sequencing