Computational Identification and Systematic Classification of Novel Cytochrome P450 Genes in Salvia miltiorrhiza

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 10;9(12):e115149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115149. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Salvia miltiorrhiza is one of the most economically important medicinal plants. Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) genes have been implicated in the biosynthesis of its active components. However, only a dozen full-length CYP450 genes have been described, and there is no systematic classification of CYP450 genes in S. miltiorrhiza. We obtained 77,549 unigenes from three tissue types of S. miltiorrhiza using RNA-Seq technology. Combining our data with previously identified CYP450 sequences and scanning with the CYP450 model from Pfam resulted in the identification of 116 full-length and 135 partial-length CYP450 genes. The 116 genes were classified into 9 clans and 38 families using standard criteria. The RNA-Seq results showed that 35 CYP450 genes were co-expressed with CYP76AH1, a marker gene for tanshinone biosynthesis, using r≥0.9 as a cutoff. The expression profiles for 16 of 19 randomly selected CYP450 obtained from RNA-Seq were validated by qRT-PCR. Comparing against the KEGG database, 10 CYP450 genes were found to be associated with diterpenoid biosynthesis. Considering all the evidence, 3 CYP450 genes were identified to be potentially involved in terpenoid biosynthesis. Moreover, we found that 15 CYP450 genes were possibly regulated by antisense transcripts (r≥0.9 or r≤-0.9). Lastly, a web resource (SMCYP450, http://www.herbalgenomics.org/samicyp450) was set up, which allows users to browse, search, retrieve and compare CYP450 genes and can serve as a centralized resource.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / classification
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Genes, Plant / genetics*
  • Phylogeny
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • RNA, Plant / genetics
  • Salvia miltiorrhiza / genetics*
  • Salvia miltiorrhiza / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • RNA, Plant
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation to CLIU (No. 81373912), HMC (No. 81202859) and BW (No. 81274015); the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Teams in the Universities from Ministry of Education of China (IRT1150). The funding agencies had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.