Key message
We employed both metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches to explore the accumulation patterns of physalins, flavonoids and chlorogenic acid in Physalis angulata and revealed the genes associated with the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds under methyl-jasmonate (MeJA) treatment.
Abstract
Physalis angulata L. is an annual Solanaceae plant with a number of medicinally active compounds. Despite the potential pharmacological benefits of P. angulata, the scarce genomic information regarding this plant has limited the studies on the mechanisms of bioactive compound biosynthesis. To facilitate the basic understanding of the main chemical constituent biosynthesis pathways, we performed both metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches to reveal the genes associated with the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds under methyl-jasmonate (MeJA) treatment. Untargeted metabolome analysis showed that most physalins, flavonoids and chlorogenic acid were significantly upregulated. Targeted HPLC–MS/MS analysis confirmed variations in the contents of two important representative steroid derivatives (physalins B and G), total flavonoids, neochlorogenic acid, and chlorogenic acid between MeJA-treated plants and controls. Transcript levels of a few steroid biosynthesis-, flavonoid biosynthesis-, and chlorogenic acid biosynthesis-related genes were upregulated, providing a potential explanation for MeJA-induced active ingredient synthesis in P. angulata. Systematic correlation analysis identified a number of novel candidate genes associated with bioactive compound biosynthesis. These results may help to elucidate the regulatory mechanism underlying MeJA-induced active compound accumulation and provide several valuable candidate genes for further functional study.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31470407 and 31970346), and the Major Increase or Decrease Program In The Central Finance Level (Grant No. 2060302). The authors also acknowledge Prof. Zhongjun Ma from Zhejiang University for supporting the authentic standards of Physalins.
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JJL and HZW conceived and designed the study. XRZ, XJL, JYH, CCZ, XYL, YJM and XYX collected and taken care of the plant samples. SGF, CNY and ZFJ performed the experiments. XRZ and JJL analyzed the data. CJS and JJL wrote the manuscript.
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Zhan, X., Luo, X., He, J. et al. Bioactive compounds induced in Physalis angulata L. by methyl-jasmonate: an investigation of compound accumulation patterns and biosynthesis-related candidate genes. Plant Mol Biol 103, 341–354 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-020-00996-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-020-00996-y