Genome-enabled Discovery of Anthraquinone Biosynthesis in Senna Tora

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 Nov 19

PMID 33208749

Citations 42

Authors

Sang-Ho Kang

Ramesh Prasad Pandey

Chang-Muk Lee

Joon-Soo Sim

Jin-Tae Jeong

Beom-Soon Choi

Myunghee Jung

Daniel Ginzburg

Kangmei Zhao

So Youn Won

Tae-Jin Oh

Yeisoo Yu

Nam-Hoon Kim

Ok Ran Lee

Tae-Ho Lee

Puspalata Bashyal

Tae-Su Kim

Woo-Haeng Lee

Charles Hawkins

Chang-Kug Kim

Jung Sun Kim

Byoung Ohg Ahn

Seung Yon Rhee

Jae Kyung Sohng

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Senna tora is a widely used medicinal plant. Its health benefits have been attributed to the large quantity of anthraquinones, but how they are made in plants remains a mystery. To identify the genes responsible for plant anthraquinone biosynthesis, we reveal the genome sequence of S. tora at the chromosome level with 526 Mb (96%) assembled into 13 chromosomes. Comparison among related plant species shows that a chalcone synthase-like (CHS-L) gene family has lineage-specifically and rapidly expanded in S. tora. Combining genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and biochemistry, we identify a CHS-L gene contributing to the biosynthesis of anthraquinones. The S. tora reference genome will accelerate the discovery of biologically active anthraquinone biosynthesis pathways in medicinal plants.

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