Tissue-specific comparative transcriptome analysis reveals candidate genes involved in lignans biosynthesis in Saururus chinensis

Objective

To investigate the functional genes involved in the lignans biosynthesis in Saururus chinensis.

Methods

An RNA-Seq based tissue-specific comparative transcriptome analysis of S. chinensis leaves and rhizomes was performed, and an up-to-date bioinformatical analysis was carried out to discover the candidate functional genes. mRNA expression of part of the candidate genes were confirmed by qRT-PCR.

Results

According to the De novo transcriptome assembly, 49 430 unigenes in S. chinensis were presented and 33 222 unigenes (67.21%) were functionally annotated. Successively, 13 031 (26.36%) differentially expressed genes were filtered, and then GO and KEGG classification and enrichment analysis combined Swissprot function prediction revealed twenty-eight candidate genes encoding twelve enzymes involved in lignans biosynthesis pathways. The qRT-PCR results were consistent with the RNA-Seq analysis for the candidate genes.

Conclusion

These results enrich our knowledge on lignans biosynthesis-related functional genes and facilitate further synthetic biology research on specific lignans in S. chinensis.