De Novo transcriptome assembly and differential expression analysis of catharanthus roseus in response to salicylic acid

The anti-cancer vinblastine and vincristine alkaloids can only be naturally found in periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). Both of these alkaloids' accumulations are known to be influenced by salicylic acid (SA). The transcriptome data to reveal the induction effect (s) of SA, however, seem restricted at this time. In this study, the de novo approach of transcriptome assembly was performed on the RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) data in C. roseus. The outcome demonstrated that SA treatment boosted the expression of all the genes in the Terpenoid Indole Alkaloids (TIAs) pathway that produces the vinblastine and vincristine alkaloids. These outcomes supported the time-course measurements of vincristine alkaloid, the end product of the TIAs pathway, and demonstrated that SA spray had a positive impact on transcription and alkaloid synthesis. Additionally, the abundance of transcription factor families including bHLH, C3H, C2H2, MYB, MYB-related, AP2/ ERF, NAC, bZIP, and WRKY suggests a role for a variety of transcription families in response to the SA stimuli. Di-nucleotide and tri-nucleotide SSRs were the most prevalent SSR markers in microsatellite analyses, making up 39% and 34% of all SSR markers, respectively, out of the 77,192 total SSRs discovered.

Automated summary

This study investigated the effects of salicylic acid on the production of vinblastine and vincristine alkaloids in Catharanthus roseus. The results showed that salicylic acid treatment increased the expression of genes in the Terpenoid Indole Alkaloids pathway, leading to enhanced synthesis of alkaloids. The abundance of transcription factor families also responded to salicylic acid stimulation.