Hossein Gorgini Shabankareh, Sarah Khorasaninejad, Hasan Soltanloo, Vahid Shariati,
Volume 18, Issue 2 (10-2023)
RNA sequencing is currently a suitable choice for studying the transcriptome of non-model plants which by faster identification of gene networks and patterns of genes producing secondary metabolites, can be effective in increasing these compounds. In this study, in order to identify some genes involved in the construction of the terpenoid skeleton in the aerial branches (leaves and flowers) of the medicinal plant Lavandula angustifolia cv. Hidcote using RNA sequencing, with the high-throughput Iluumina HiSeq2500 technique. After controlling the quality of the reads using FastQC and Trimmomatic software, 306995557 reads with suitable quality were produced, which after de novo integration with the Evidentialgene program, resulted in the production of 262412 unigenes with an average length of 1181.07 and N50 equivalent to 1633 nucleotides. In order to identify unigenes related to the biosynthetic pathway of terpenoid skeleton, the sequence of unigenes was loaded in KASS database. A total of 17,777 unigenes were identified in 122 biological pathways, the "terpenoid skeleton" pathway with 88 unigenes was one of the most identified pathways among the 1,664 unigenes of the secondary metabolite biosynthesis pathway. In general, the results of the functional interpretation of the genes led to the identification of 27 genes in the biosynthesis pathway of the terpenoid skeleton, which included all the genes of the two main biosynthetic pathways of the terpenoid skeleton (mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway in cytosolic and methyl-erythritol-phosphate (MEP) pathway in plastid) from the beginning of the pathway to the production of isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP). The identification of the sequence of the genes of the biosynthetic pathways of the terpenoid skeleton and the functions related to it can become a basis for further research by advancing the goals of metabolite engineering of these genes.
