JA-Responsive Transcription Factor SmMYB97 Promotes Phenolic Acid and Tanshinone Accumulation in .

Phenolic acids and tanshinones are active principles in Bunge administered for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Jasmonic acid (JA) promotes secondary metabolite accumulation, but the regulatory mechanism is unknown in . We identified and characterized the JA-responsive gene . Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analyses showed that SmMYB97 was clustered with AtMYB11, AtMYB12, and ZmP1 in the subgroup S7 regulating flavonol biosynthesis. was highly expressed in leaves and induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA). SmMYB97 was localized in the nucleus and had strong transcriptional activation activity. overexpression increased phenolic acid and tanshinone biosynthesis and upregulated the genes implicated in these processes. Yeast one-hybrid and transient transcriptional activity assays disclosed that SmMYB97 binds the , , , and promoter regions. SmJAZ8 interacts with SmMYB97 and downregulates the genes that it controls. This study partially clarified the regulatory network of MeJA-mediated secondary metabolite biosynthesis in .