The biosynthesis of phenolic acids is positively regulated by the JA-responsive transcription factor ERF115 in Salvia miltiorrhiza

Phenolic acids are important secondary metabolites produced in the Chinese medicinal plant Salvia miltiorrhiza, but little is known about the transcription factors involved in the regulation of tanshinone and phenolic acid biosynthesis. Here, a novel AP2/ERF transcription factor SmERF115 was isolated and functionally characterized. SmERF115 was most responsive to methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment and was localized in the nucleus. The phenolic acid production was increased in SmERF115-overexpressing hairy roots, but with a decrease in tanshinone content. In contrast, silencing of SmERF115 reduced the phenolic acid level, but increased tanshinone content. The expression of the key biosynthetic gene SmRAS1 was up-regulated in SmERF115 overexpression lines but was down-regulated in SmERF115-RNAi lines. Yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assay and EMSA showed that SmERF115 directly binds to the promoter of SmRAS1, while dual-luciferase assays showed that SmERF115 could activate expression of SmRAS1 in vivo. Furthermore, global transcriptomic analysis by RNA sequencing revealed that expression of other genes such as PAL3, 4C15, TAT3, and RAS4 was also increased in the overexpression line, implying that they were potentially involved in the SmERF115-mediated pathway. Our data show that SmERF115 is a positive regulator of phenolic acid biosynthesis, and may be a potential target for further metabolic engineering of phenolic acid biosynthesis in S. miltiorrhiza.