Full-length transcriptome analysis reveals candidate genes involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in Euphorbia maculata.
6 affiliations
- 1School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Fuzhou Medical College, Fuzhou, 344000, China.
- 2School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fuzhou Medical College, Fuzhou, 344000, China.
- 3Key Laboratory of Jianchangbang Traditional Chinese Medicine Research of Jiangxi Education Institutes, Fuzhou Medical College, Fuzhou, 344000, China.
- 4College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
- 5School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fuzhou Medical College, Fuzhou, 344000, China. [email protected].
- 6Key Laboratory of Jianchangbang Traditional Chinese Medicine Research of Jiangxi Education Institutes, Fuzhou Medical College, Fuzhou, 344000, China. [email protected].
Abstract
Background
Euphorbia maculata is a herbaceous plant in China, known for its medicinal properties. The main active components of E. maculata are flavonoids. However, the biosynthesis mechanism of flavonoids in E. maculata remains poorly understood due to the limited availability of genetic information. In order to explore the flavonoid biosynthesis mechanism of this species, we carried our study.Results
A total of 20,238 non-redundant transcript isoforms were acquired with an N50 length of 2,994 bp and an average length of 2,766.82 bp. Of these isoforms, 20,069 (99.16%) were successfully annotated in NR, Swissprot, KOG, GO, and KEGG databases. Additionally, 20,085 coding sequences (CDSs), 117 long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs), and 971 transcription factors (TFs) were identified from the full-length transcriptome data. The RNA-Seq data was then analyzed using the full-length transcriptome as a reference sequence, revealing 27 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in E. maculata. These included 15 PAL, 5 C4H, 4 4CL, and 3 CHS genes. The expression levels of these DEGs were found to vary in the leaf and stem across five different periods, with the majority of phenylpropanoid pathway genes being upregulated in the stem compared to the leaf at the same period. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis revealed that the bHLH, HD-ZIP, bZIP, MYB, FAR1, and AP2 may regulate the expression of 5 C4H and 3 CHS. Furthermore, through analyzing the correlation between the expression levels of DEGs and the accumulation of flavonoids in various tissues of E. maculata at different stages, we found that 2 PAL, 2 C4H, 1 4CL, and 2 CHS may play a crucial role in regulating flavonoid biosynthesis in this species.Conclusions
Our study enriched the genomic resources and revealed candidate genes involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in E. maculata. These findings provide candidate gene resources for further investigation of the flavonoid biosynthesis mechanism in E. maculata.
Related
- Single-cell transcriptome atlas reveals a WRKY33-HSP81 regulatory module that orchestrates phenylpropanoid-mediated defense against Sclerotium rolfsii in Dendrobium officinale.
- Identification of candidate key genes involved in natural rubber biosynthesis in Periploca sepium
- Multi-Omic Integration of the miRNome and Transcriptome in Dermal Fibroblasts from Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders Identifies Convergent Candidate miRNA-mRNA Regulatory Networks Linking Extracellular Matrix Remodeling and Inflammation
- On the hunt for candidate genes involved in host-adaptation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa using comparative genomics
- Triterpenes with α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity from Euphorbia antiquorum.
BibTeX
@article{guo2026fulllength,
title = {{Full-length transcriptome analysis reveals candidate genes involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in Euphorbia maculata.}},
author = {Sanbao Guo and Meiling Song and Mingming Gui and Wuhua Yu and Qingyang Wu and Zechang Rao and Zirun Zhang and Chunxiang Chen and Shenghe Huang},
journal = {BMC genomics},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1186/s12864-026-13213-9},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928130},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Full-length transcriptome analysis reveals candidate genes involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in Euphorbia maculata.
AU - Sanbao Guo
AU - Meiling Song
AU - Mingming Gui
AU - Wuhua Yu
AU - Qingyang Wu
AU - Zechang Rao
AU - Zirun Zhang
AU - Chunxiang Chen
AU - Shenghe Huang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/29
JO - BMC genomics
DO - 10.1186/s12864-026-13213-9
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928130
AB - Background Euphorbia maculata is a herbaceous plant in China, known for its medicinal properties. The main active components of E. maculata are flavonoids. However, the biosynthesis mechanism of flavonoids in E. maculata remains poorly understood due to the limited availability of genetic information. In order to explore the flavonoid biosynthesis mechanism of this species, we carried our study.Results A total of 20,238 non-redundant transcript isoforms were acquired with an N50 length of 2,994 bp and an average length of 2,766.82 bp. Of these isoforms, 20,069 (99.16%) were successfully annotated in NR, Swissprot, KOG, GO, and KEGG databases. Additionally, 20,085 coding sequences (CDSs), 117 long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs), and 971 transcription factors (TFs) were identified from the full-length transcriptome data. The RNA-Seq data was then analyzed using the full-length transcriptome as a reference sequence, revealing 27 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in E. maculata. These included 15 PAL, 5 C4H, 4 4CL, and 3 CHS genes. The expression levels of these DEGs were found to vary in the leaf and stem across five different periods, with the majority of phenylpropanoid pathway genes being upregulated in the stem compared to the leaf at the same period. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis revealed that the bHLH, HD-ZIP, bZIP, MYB, FAR1, and AP2 may regulate the expression of 5 C4H and 3 CHS. Furthermore, through analyzing the correlation between the expression levels of DEGs and the accumulation of flavonoids in various tissues of E. maculata at different stages, we found that 2 PAL, 2 C4H, 1 4CL, and 2 CHS may play a crucial role in regulating flavonoid biosynthesis in this species.Conclusions Our study enriched the genomic resources and revealed candidate genes involved in phenylpropanoid pathway in E. maculata. These findings provide candidate gene resources for further investigation of the flavonoid biosynthesis mechanism in E. maculata.
SN - 1471-2164
ER -