Transcriptomics-based Identification of Echinacea purpurea Transcription Factors Involved in Biosynthesis of Secondary Metabolites

Echinacea purpurea is a medicinal plant that produces a large variety of secondary metabolites including alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, and phenylpropanoids. These compounds have pharmacological activities to strengthen immune system by stimulating the production of T cells against tumor cells. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA), one of the derivatives of jasmonic acid, is a plant hormone which induces biosynthesis of many secondary metabolites in Echinacea purpurea. Transcription factors are known as key regulatory proteins involved in various plant processes including biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Here, we give an overview of various families of Echinacea purpurea transcription factors that were identified by analyzing RNA-seq transcriptomics data and metabolic pathways in MeJA-induced secondary metabolite biosynthesis. The results showed that MeJA activated expression of a number of transcription factors and down-stream enzyme-coding genes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. 101 transcription factors were known to be responsive to MeJA treatment using BLASTX against NCBI non-redundant protein database. The functional interaction networks of TFs were also generated by STRING and GENEMANIA databases. Among the transcription factors, the members of the following families were overrepresented: AP2/ERF family members which modulate biosynthesis of terpenoid indol alkaloids; R2R3-MYB family members which are involved in flavonoids, isoprenoids and phenylpropanoids pathways; bHLH-MYC family members which regulate terpenoid indole alkaloids, and anthocyanins pathways and finally GRAS family members which contribute to diterpenoid biosynthesis.

کلیدواژه ها:

RNA-seq ، Transcription factor ، Secondary metabolite ، Methyl jasmonate.