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. 2023 Mar 28;12(7):1483.
doi: 10.3390/plants12071483.

Isolation and Characterization of the Genes Involved in the Berberine Synthesis Pathway in Asian Blue Cohosh, Caulophyllum robustum

Nam-Il Park  1 , Neha Samir Roy  2 , Yeri Park  2 , Beom-Soon Choi  3 , Mi Jin Jeon  4 , Ji Yeon Oh  4 , Bo-Yun Kim  5 , Young-Dong Kim  6 , Yong-In Kim  7 , Taeyoung Um  2 , Hwan Jong Kwak  2 , Nam-Soo Kim  3 , Soonok Kim  6 , Ik-Young Choi  2
Affiliations

Isolation and Characterization of the Genes Involved in the Berberine Synthesis Pathway in Asian Blue Cohosh, Caulophyllum robustum

Nam-Il Park et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Caulophyllum robustum, commonly named Asian blue cohosh, is a perennial herb in the family Berberidaceae. It has traditionally been used for folk medicine in China. We isolated berberine from the leaves, stem, roots, and fruits of C. robustum, and this is the first report on berberine in this species. Transcriptome analysis was conducted for the characterization of berberine biosynthesis genes in C. robustum, in which, all the genes for berberine biosynthesis were identified. From 40,094 transcripts, using gene ontology (GO) analysis, 26,750 transcripts were assigned their functions in the categories of biological process, molecular function, and cellular component. In the analysis of genes expressed in different tissues, the numbers of genes in the categories of intrinsic component of membrane and transferase activity were up-regulated in leaves versus stem. The berberine synthesis genes in C. robustum were characterized by phylogenetic analysis with corresponding genes from other berberine-producing species. The co-existence of genes from different plant families in the deepest branch subclade implies that the differentiation of berberine synthesis genes occurred early in the evolution of berberine-producing plants. Furthermore, the copy number increment of the berberine synthesis genes was detected at the species level.

Keywords: BIA; Caulophyllum robustum; berberine; blue cohosh; transcriptomes.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have read the manuscript and have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Berberine content in the four organs of C. robustum. Data followed by a different letter indicate significant differences between samples according to one-way ANOVA/Duncan test (p < 0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Mapping of the transcripts to different protein databases. (B) List of species matching the C. robustum transcriptomes to other transcriptomes.
Figure 3
Figure 3
GO analysis of the C. robustum transcriptomes. The numbers at the bottom represent the number of transcripts in the three GO categories from whole set of transcriptomes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
GO analysis of the differently expressed genes between tissues. The numbers in the X-axis represent the number of transcripts.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Berberine synthesis pathway. TYDC: tyrosine decarboxylase; 3OHase: tyrosine/tyramine 3-hydroxylase; TyrAT: tyrosine aminotransferase; HPPDC: 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate decarxylase; NCS: (S)-norcoclaurine synthase; 6OMT: (RS)-norcoclaurine 6-O-methyltransferase; CNMT: (S)-coclaurine N-methyltransferase; NMCH/CYP803: N-methylcoclaurine 3′-monooxygenase; 4OMT: 3′hydroxy-N-methyl-(S)-coclaurine 4′-O-methyltransferase; BBE: berberine bridge enzyme; SOMT: (S)-scoulerine 9-O-methyltransferase; CAS/CYP719A21: canadine synthase; STOX: (S)-tetrahydroprotoberberine oxidase.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Phylogenetic trees of: (S)-norcoclaurine synthase (NCS) in (A); and berberine bridge enzyme (BBE) in (B). Species—B. lyceum: Berberis lyceum; B. koreana: Berberis koreana; C. chinensis: Coptis chinensis; C. robustum: Caulophyllum robustum; E. californica: Eschscholzia californica; M. cordata: Macleaya cordata; N. nucifera: Nelumbo nucifera; T. flavum: Thalictrum flavum; P. somniferum: Papaver somniferum; P. nudicaule: Papaver nudicaule. The scale bar represents the phylogenetic distance derived from substitution per site in the sequence.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Phylogenetic tree of methyltransferases. Species—B. lyceum: Berberis lyceum; B. koreana: Berberis koreana; C. chinensis: Coptis chinensis; C. robustum: Caulophyllum robustum; E. californica: Eschscholzia californica; M. cordata: Macleaya cordata; N. nucifera: Nelumbo nucifera; T. flavum: Thalictrum flavum; P. somniferum: Papaver somniferum; P. nudicaule: Papaver nudicaule. The scale bar represents the phylogenetic distance derived from substitution per site in the sequence.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Phylogenetic tree of CYP80s and CYP719 from various plants. Species—B. lyceum: Berberis lyceum; B. koreana: Berberis koreana; C. chinensis: Coptis chinensis; C. japonica: Coptis japonica; C. robustum: Caulophyllum robustum; E. californica: Eschscholzia californica; M. cordata: Macleaya cordata; N. nucifera: Nelumbo nucifera; T. flavum: Thalictrum flavum; P. somniferum: Papaver somniferum; P. nudicaule: Papaver nudicaule; C. micranthum: Combretum micranthum. The scale bar represents the phylogenetic distance derived from substitution per site in the sequence.
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