Transcriptional Profile of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch Suspension Cell in Response to Methyl Jasmonate

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch) flavonoids have many pharmacological effects, as the main chemical component of licorice, its content directly affects the quality of licorice. Methyl jasmine (MeJA) is an important signaling molecule in the secondary metabolic pathway of plants, but the biological mechanisms that stimulating the production of licorice flavonoids and the related changes in transcriptome are still less studied. In this research, the expression of two key enzyme genes: Chalcone synthase (CHS) and Cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) in the biosynthesis pathway of licorice flavonoids was determined, and it was significantly different after 9 hours of MeJA induction. The transcriptome profiles of licorice cells at 9 hours after MeJA treatment were analyzed to investigate the transcriptional alterations of licorice cell in response to MeJA elicitation by “RNA-seq”. 151, 529 transcripts (200 bp in length) of cDNA from the samples were generated, and 116, 907 unigenes were found. MeJA appeared to stimulate a large number of genes involved in several relevant functional categories, such as carbohydrate metabolism and encoding transcription factors, 11 MYB transcription factors expressed significant differences were screened. This comprehensive description of gene expression information could help elucidate the molecular mechanism of MeJA-mediated biosynthesis of licorice flavonoids and MeJA-regulated network formation. Examination of 3 different Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch cells induced by MeJA and 3 different Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch cells uninduced by MeJA

乌拉尔甘草（Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch）黄酮类成分具有多种药理活性，作为甘草的主要化学组分，其含量直接决定甘草的品质。茉莉酸甲酯（MeJA）是植物次生代谢通路中的重要信号分子，但目前关于其调控甘草黄酮合成的生物学机制以及相关转录组变化的研究仍较为匮乏。本研究检测了甘草黄酮生物合成通路中的两个关键酶基因——查尔酮合酶（CHS）与肉桂酸-4-羟化酶（C4H）的表达水平，发现经MeJA诱导9小时后二者的表达量存在显著差异。本研究通过RNA测序（"RNA-seq"）技术，对MeJA处理9小时后的甘草细胞进行转录组分析，以解析其响应MeJA诱导的转录水平变化。本次测序共获得151529条长度不小于200bp的样本cDNA转录本，注释得到116907个单基因簇（unigene）。分析发现，MeJA可诱导大量参与碳水化合物代谢、转录因子编码等相关功能类别的基因表达，最终筛选得到11个差异表达的MYB转录因子。本研究获得的全面基因表达信息，有助于阐明MeJA介导的甘草黄酮生物合成分子机制以及MeJA调控的基因网络构成。本研究共设置3组MeJA诱导的乌拉尔甘草细胞样本与3组未诱导的对照组样本。