Artemisia annua, commonly known as sweet wormwood or Qinghao, is a shrub native to China and has long been used for medicinal purposes. A. annua is now cultivated globally as the only natural source of a potent anti-m...Artemisia annua, commonly known as sweet wormwood or Qinghao, is a shrub native to China and has long been used for medicinal purposes. A. annua is now cultivated globally as the only natural source of a potent anti-malarial compound, artemisinin. Here, we report a high-quality draft assembly of the 1.74-gigabase genome of A. annua, which is highly heterozygous, rich in repetitive sequences, and contains 63 226 protein-coding genes, one of the largest numbers among the sequenced plant species. We found that, as one of a few sequenced genomes in the Asteraceae, the A. annua genome contains a large number of genes specific to this large angiosperm clade. Notably, the expansion and functional diversification of genes encoding enzymes involved in terpene biosynthesis are consistent with the evolution of the artemi- sinin biosynthetic pathway. We further revealed by transcriptome profiling that A. annua has evolved the sophisticated transcriptional regulatory networks underlying artemisinin biosynthesis. Based on compre- hensive genomic and transcriptomic analyses we generated transgenic A. annua lines producing high levels of artemisinin, which are now ready for large-scale production and thereby will help meet the chal- lenge of increasing global demand of artemisinin.展开更多
Metabolomics has been rapidly developed as an important field in plant sciences and natural products chemistry.As the only natural source for a diversity of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids(MIAs),especially the low-abun...Metabolomics has been rapidly developed as an important field in plant sciences and natural products chemistry.As the only natural source for a diversity of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids(MIAs),especially the low-abundance antitumor agents vinblastine and vincristine,Catharanthus roseus is highly valued and has been studied extensively as a model for medicinal plants improvement.Due to multistep enzymatic biosynthesis and complex regulation,genetic modification in the MIA pathway has resulted in complicated changes of both secondary and primary metabolism in C.roseus,affecting not only the MIA pathway but also other pathways.Research at the metabolic level is necessary to increase knowledge on the genetic regulation of the whole metabolic network connected to MIA biosynthesis.Nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)is a very suitable and powerful complementary technique for the identification and quantification of metabolites in the plant matrix.NMR-based metabolomics has been used in studies of C.roseus for pathway elucidation,understanding stress responses,classification among different cultivars,safety and quality controls of transgenic plants,cross talk between pathways,and diversion of carbon fluxes,with the aim of fully unravelling MIA biosynthesis,its regulation and the function of the alkaloids in the plant from a systems biology point of view.展开更多
文摘Artemisia annua, commonly known as sweet wormwood or Qinghao, is a shrub native to China and has long been used for medicinal purposes. A. annua is now cultivated globally as the only natural source of a potent anti-malarial compound, artemisinin. Here, we report a high-quality draft assembly of the 1.74-gigabase genome of A. annua, which is highly heterozygous, rich in repetitive sequences, and contains 63 226 protein-coding genes, one of the largest numbers among the sequenced plant species. We found that, as one of a few sequenced genomes in the Asteraceae, the A. annua genome contains a large number of genes specific to this large angiosperm clade. Notably, the expansion and functional diversification of genes encoding enzymes involved in terpene biosynthesis are consistent with the evolution of the artemi- sinin biosynthetic pathway. We further revealed by transcriptome profiling that A. annua has evolved the sophisticated transcriptional regulatory networks underlying artemisinin biosynthesis. Based on compre- hensive genomic and transcriptomic analyses we generated transgenic A. annua lines producing high levels of artemisinin, which are now ready for large-scale production and thereby will help meet the chal- lenge of increasing global demand of artemisinin.
基金National High-tech R&D Program of China(2011AA100605)Shanghai Key Discipline Cultivation and Construction Project(Horticulture)Shanghai Jiao Tong University Agri-Engineering Program.
文摘Metabolomics has been rapidly developed as an important field in plant sciences and natural products chemistry.As the only natural source for a diversity of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids(MIAs),especially the low-abundance antitumor agents vinblastine and vincristine,Catharanthus roseus is highly valued and has been studied extensively as a model for medicinal plants improvement.Due to multistep enzymatic biosynthesis and complex regulation,genetic modification in the MIA pathway has resulted in complicated changes of both secondary and primary metabolism in C.roseus,affecting not only the MIA pathway but also other pathways.Research at the metabolic level is necessary to increase knowledge on the genetic regulation of the whole metabolic network connected to MIA biosynthesis.Nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)is a very suitable and powerful complementary technique for the identification and quantification of metabolites in the plant matrix.NMR-based metabolomics has been used in studies of C.roseus for pathway elucidation,understanding stress responses,classification among different cultivars,safety and quality controls of transgenic plants,cross talk between pathways,and diversion of carbon fluxes,with the aim of fully unravelling MIA biosynthesis,its regulation and the function of the alkaloids in the plant from a systems biology point of view.
