A Q-markers Database based on Endophytes from Chinese Herb

Endophytes are a group of microorganisms that coexist with healthy plant tissues and organs at various or all stages of their life cycle without causing obvious disease symptoms in the host plant. These microorganisms include endophytic bacteria and fungi. Traditional Chinese medicinal plants are rich in endophytes, which are intricately linked to the metabolic processes of the host plants and the production of active medicinal compounds. Moreover, endophytes directly influence the quality and authenticity of traditional Chinese herbs. Notable traditional medicinal plants such as Gastrodiae Rhizoma, Scutellariae Radix, Bupleuri Radix, Polygonati Rhizoma, and Cistanches Herba are frequently used in traditional Chinese medicine for the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of diseases.In recent years, driven by the "Healthy China" strategy and the growing emphasis on traditional Chinese medicinal resources, research on endophytes in traditional Chinese herbs has been on the rise. To compile and synthesize the extensive research findings on endophytes in traditional Chinese herbs and establish a comprehensive knowledge system, literature retrieval and information extraction analyses were conducted. Consequently, a Q-markers database based on endophytes in Chinese herbs was created. This database encompasses the names, host plants, plant source in literature, classifications, genera, families, orders, classes, phyla, functions/biological effects, techniques, sequence lengths, NCBI reference sequence numbers/GenBank, references, and corresponding links of endophytes. This database serves as a valuable reference for research related to the microbiome of traditional Chinese herbs.In Version 2, the number of endophytes in the database was updated to 657.In Version 3, in order to distinguish the origin of host plants, category 'Plant source in literature' was added. The number of endophytes in the database was updated to 660.In Version 4, we added a processing file for the data in QMD, in which we counted the frequency of each endophyte and analyzed parameters such as the proportion of high-frequency endophytes occurring in the five traditional medicinal plants.In Version 5, we corrected the errors that appeared in the description of the past few versions and a new version of QMD was provided.