The genome of Tripterygium wilfordii and characterization of the celastrol biosynthesis pathway

Tianlin Pei; Mengxiao Yan; Yu Kong; Hang Fan; Jie Liu; Mengying Cui; Yumin Fang; Binjie Ge; Jun Yang; Qing Zhao

doi:10.46471/gigabyte.14

The genome of Tripterygium wilfordii and characterization of the celastrol biosynthesis pathway

GigaByte. 2021 Feb 28:2021:gigabyte14. doi: 10.46471/gigabyte.14. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Tianlin Pei^{1

2}, Mengxiao Yan¹, Yu Kong¹, Hang Fan^{1

2}, Jie Liu¹, Mengying Cui¹, Yumin Fang¹, Binjie Ge¹, Jun Yang^{1

2}, Qing Zhao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Resources, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Tripterygium wilfordii is a vine from the Celastraceae family that is used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The active ingredient, celastrol, is a friedelane-type pentacyclic triterpenoid with putative roles as an antitumor, immunosuppressive, and anti-obesity agent. Here, we report a reference genome assembly of T. wilfordii with high-quality annotation using a hybrid sequencing strategy. The total genome size obtained is 340.12 Mb, with a contig N50 value of 3.09 Mb. We successfully anchored 91.02% of sequences into 23 pseudochromosomes using high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) technology. The super-scaffold N50 value was 13.03 Mb. We also annotated 31,593 structural genes, with a repeat percentage of 44.31%. These data demonstrate that T. wilfordii diverged from Malpighiales species approximately 102.4 million years ago. By integrating genome, transcriptome and metabolite analyses, as well as in vivo and in vitro enzyme assays of two cytochrome P450 (CYP450) genes, TwCYP712K1 and TwCYP712K2, it is possible to investigate the second biosynthesis step of celastrol and demonstrate that this was derived from a common ancestor. These data provide insights and resources for further investigation of pathways related to celastrol, and valuable information to aid the conservation of resources, as well as understand the evolution of Celastrales.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant numbers 2018YFC1706202, 2019YFD1000703, 2018YFD1000701, and 2020YFA0907901), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31870282, 31700268), Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chenshan Special Fund for Shanghai Landscaping Administration Bureau Program (grant numbers G182401, G182402, G192419, G192413, G192414 and G202402). Q.Z. is also support by the Shanghai Youth Talent Support Program and SA-SIBS Scholarship Program.