Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources Protection and Innovation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China.
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China.
BMC Genomics. 2024 Aug 3;25(1):759. doi: 10.1186/s12864-024-10676-6.
Chrysanthemum morifolium 'HangBaiJu', a popular medicinal and edible plant, exerts its biological activities primarily through the presence of flavones and caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs). However, the regulatory mechanism of flavone and CQA biosynthesis in the chrysanthemum capitulum remains unclear.
In this study, the content of flavones and CQAs during the development of chrysanthemum capitulum was determined by HPLC, revealing an accumulation pattern with higher levels at S1 and S2 and a gradual decrease at S3 to S5. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that CmPAL1/2, CmCHS1/2, CmFNS, CmHQT, and CmHCT were key structural genes in flavones and CQAs biosynthesis. Furthermore, weighted gene co-expression correlation network analysis (WGCNA), k-means clustering, correlation analysis and protein interaction prediction were carried out in this study to identify transcription factors (TFs) associated with flavone and CQA biosynthesis, including MYB, bHLH, AP2/ERF, and MADS-box families. The TFs CmERF/PTI6 and CmCMD77 were proposed to act as upstream regulators of CmMYB3 and CmbHLH143, while CmMYB3 and CmbHLH143 might form a complex to directly regulate the structural genes CmPAL1/2, CmCHS1/2, CmFNS, CmHQT, and CmHCT, thereby controlling flavone and CQA biosynthesis.
Overall, these findings provide initial insights into the TF regulatory network underlying flavones and CQAs accumulation in the chrysanthemum capitulum, which laid a theoretical foundation for the quality improvement of C. morifolium 'HangBaiJu' and the high-quality development of the industry.
杭白菊作为一种常见的药食同源植物，主要通过黄酮类和咖啡酰奎宁酸（CQAs）发挥其生物活性。然而，菊花头状花序中黄酮类和 CQA 生物合成的调控机制尚不清楚。
本研究通过 HPLC 测定菊花头状花序发育过程中黄酮类和 CQA 的含量，揭示了 S1 和 S2 含量较高，S3 至 S5 逐渐降低的积累模式。转录组分析表明，CmPAL1/2、CmCHS1/2、CmFNS、CmHQT 和 CmHCT 是黄酮类和 CQA 生物合成的关键结构基因。此外，本研究还进行了加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA）、k-均值聚类、相关性分析和蛋白质相互作用预测，以鉴定与黄酮类和 CQA 生物合成相关的转录因子（TFs），包括 MYB、bHLH、AP2/ERF 和 MADS 盒家族。提出 TFs CmERF/PTI6 和 CmCMD77 作为 CmMYB3 和 CmbHLH143 的上游调控因子，而 CmMYB3 和 CmbHLH143 可能形成复合物直接调控结构基因 CmPAL1/2、CmCHS1/2、CmFNS、CmHQT 和 CmHCT，从而控制黄酮类和 CQA 的生物合成。
综上所述，这些发现为菊花头状花序中黄酮类和 CQA 积累的 TF 调控网络提供了初步的见解，为杭白菊的品质改良和产业的高质量发展奠定了理论基础。
