Institute of Applied Chemistry, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, Shanxi, China.
Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, Shanxi, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Sep;30(42):95648-95659. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-29145-w. Epub 2023 Aug 9.
Ephedra sinica is one of the most famous Chinese medicinal plants. The insufficient supply of wild resources has led to the increased use of cultivated products. However, the related medicinal quality differs significantly. Although the influence of external environment on the quality of E. sinica has been studied, the impact of endophytic microbes on it remains vague. This study characterized differential metabolites and microbial community compositions in wild and cultivated E. sinica by combining metabolomics with microbiomics, and explored the effect of endophytes on the formation of differential metabolites further. The results showed that the difference in quality between wild and cultivated E. sinica was mainly in the productions of alkaloids, flavonoids, and terpenoids. The associated endophytes had special compositional characteristics. For instance, the distribution and abundance of dominant endophytes varied between wild and cultivated E. sinica. Several endophytes had significant or highly significant correlations with the formations of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, D-cathinone, methcathinone, coumarin, kaempferol, rhamnetin, or phenylacetic acid. This study will deepen our understanding of the plant-endophyte interactions and provide a strategy for the quality control of E. sinica products.
麻黄是中国最著名的药用植物之一。由于野生资源供应不足，导致栽培产品的用量增加。然而，相关的药用质量却有很大的差异。虽然已经研究了外部环境对麻黄质量的影响，但内生微生物对其的影响仍不清楚。本研究通过代谢组学和微生物组学相结合的方法，对野生和栽培麻黄中的差异代谢物和微生物群落组成进行了特征描述，并进一步探讨了内生菌对差异代谢物形成的影响。结果表明，野生和栽培麻黄质量的差异主要表现在生物碱、黄酮类和萜类化合物的产生上。相关的内生菌具有特殊的组成特征。例如，优势内生菌在野生和栽培麻黄中的分布和丰度存在差异。一些内生菌与麻黄碱、伪麻黄碱、D-去甲麻黄碱、去甲麻黄碱、香豆素、山奈酚、杨梅素或苯乙酸的形成有显著或极显著的相关性。本研究将加深我们对植物-内生菌相互作用的理解，并为麻黄产品的质量控制提供策略。
