DOI: 10.46909/cerce-2020-019 Review Article Available online: www.uaiasi.ro/CERCET_AGROMOLD/ Print ISSN 0379-5837; Electronic ISSN 2067-1865 Cercetări Agronomice în Moldova Vol. LIII , No. 2 (182) / 2020: 217-232

A REVIEW ON GENOMES OF SOME IMPORTANT TRADITIONAL CHINESE FRUITS AND

M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN1,*, W. SUN1, Q. CHENG1,2 ,*

*E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

Received: May 10, 2020. Revised: June 15, 2020. Accepted: June 22, 2020. Published online: July 18, 2020

ABSTRACT. Chinese medicinal herbs represent a number of challenges for the and fruits have grown rapidly and generation and utilization of genomic significantly in recent years and have a resources in many important medicinal positive influence on improving people’s plant species. This review has focused on attention to their health and organic life plant genomes of some important style. According to the advancement of horticultural , which are famous in sequencing technologies and reduced traditional Chinese , namely costs, the genome sequencing data of , and goji . However, medicinal plants are accumulating rapidly. more researches are needed to introduce Our aim was to review plant genomes of the genome research of medicinal plants. three important medicinal plants in China. Keywords: gene sequencing; ginger; There is an ample genetic diversity of ginseng; goji berry; horticultural crops; plants with medicinal importance around organic life. the globe and this pool of genetic variation serves as the base for selection, INTRODUCTION as well as for plant improvement. Plant genomes are characterized by large variations of genome size and ploidy considers level. Comparative genomics provides a health practices, knowledge, method to unravel the relationship approaches and beliefs incorporating between genomes, by describing plants, fruits and herbs, based on both conserved chromosomes or chromosomal ancient and modern pharmaceutical regions between related species. It is also science (Ogbaji et al., 2013, 2018; clear that it is possible to use plant Soleymani and Shahrajabian 2012, genome as a tool for improving breeding 2018; Shahrajabian et al., 2020a,b,c; strategies. However, certain limitations Sun et al., 2020a,b). Genome

1 Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China 2 College of Life Sciences, Agricultural University, Baoding, Hebei, 071000, China; Global Alliance of HeBAU-CLS&HeQiS for BioAl-Manufacturing, Baoding, Hebei 071000, China

217 M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN, W. SUN, Q. CHENG sequencing represents a perfect a and a medicine for more than overview of the structural 2000 years in traditional Chinese organization of functional elements in medicine (Shahrajabian et al., 2019a). a given genome, and these structural In both traditional and modern elements carry the knowledge of the Chinese medicine, ginger is used in evolutionary history of an organism about half of all herbal prescriptions (Xiong et al., 2018; Jiang et al., 2019). (Shahrajabian et al., 2019b). Ginseng Gantait et al. (2014) concluded that (Panax ginseng) is a famous in there is a plentiful genetic diversity in traditional Chinese medicine and plants with medicinal importance pharmacological activities and around the globe and this pool of ginseng extracts have effects on the genetic variation can be considered as central nervous system and largely the base for selection, as well as for consumed as adaptogenic herb plant improvement. Xu et al. (2019) (Shahrajabian et al., 2019c). This concluded that horticultural plants medicinal plant is the unique source provide humans with various valuable of various types of chemical products, so usage of genome editing compounds, which are responsible for to improve horticultural crops has the various activities of the plants, and substantially boosted in recent years, more researches on P. ginseng should in different parts of the world. Hao be considered for the control of and Xiao (2015) revealed that various diseases (Shahrajabian et al., medicinal plants have long been 2019d). China has important potential utilized in traditional medicine and to produce aromatic and medical ethnomedicine world, and plants and herbs due to its various understanding of medicinal plant biological diversity and different genome, phylogeny, and evolution are climatic conditions (Shahrajabian et al., important factors to expand the 2019e,f,g; Sun et al., 2019b,c). The knowledge pedigree, and enable the goal of this review is to present a molecular breeding of medicinal short review on plant genomes of plants and the sustainable utilization some important traditional Chinese of plant pharmaceutical resources. herbs and fruits. Goji ( barbarum) is a famous Chinese traditional super-fruit, which Ginseng contains many nutrients, which has Ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. huge health benefits that attract good Meyer) is a perennial herb of the international markets; it is considered Panax genus in Araliaceae family and as both super-fruit and super-food in has widely been used as a traditional traditional Chinese medicine in Asia and other parts of and it should be part of daily diet in a the world, especially in China sustainable life (Shahrajabian et al., (Jayakodi et al., 2018). Ginseng is 2018; Sun et al., 2019a). Ginger known to be tetraploid (2n = 4x = 48), (Zingiber officinale) has been used as with an estimated genome size of

218 FAMOUS TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS AND THEIR PLANT GENOMES approximately 3.6 Gbp (Waminal et al., Chinese accessions, identified very 2012; Choi et al., 2014). rare, but unique polymorphism in the Its large, highly repetitive cp genome within P. ginseng cultivars. genome, which has experienced There were 12 intra-species whole-genome duplication, has polymorphisms (six SNPs and six impeded the progress of whole- InDels) among 14 cultivars. genome sequencing of P. ginseng Chloroplast genome map of 11 (Choi et al., 2014). Chloroplast (cp) P. ginseng cultivars is shown in Fig. 1. genome and 45S nuclear ribosomal Primers of polymorphism among DNA (45S nrDNA) sequences are the P. ginseng accessions Primer ID is main molecular targets used for plant presented in Table 1. , because these sequences Obae et al. (2011) found that are conserved across plant species and explants from different root show clear inter-species polymorphism, morphotypes (lines) of P. quinquefolius whereas intra-species polymorphism have different callus induction is rare (Kim et al., 2013). For Panax response, callus growth and species, they previously identified ginsenoside production in vitro. Also, 60 polymorphic sites at the inter- these results show positive and species level among 101 IGS regions significant correlations between initial of three Panax species, namely total ginsenoside content of explants P. ginseng, P. quinquefolius and and callus growth and ginsenoside P. notoginseng, using high resolution content of calluses, which implies that melting (HRM) analysis (Kim et al., initial ginsenoside content of explants 2015). They have obtained complete donor plants could have a significant sequences of cp and 45S nrDNA, the influence on in vitro callus growth and representative barcoding target ginsenoside production and therefore sequences for cytoplasm and nuclear should be considered when selecting genome, respectively, based on low stock plants for in vitro culture. The coverage NGS sequence of each presented results also show variability cultivar. The cp genomes sizes ranged in ginsenoside profiles and genetics from 156, 241 to 156, 425 bp and the among P. quinquefolius lines. In spite major size variation was derived from of the fact that, no specific link differences in copy number of tandem between a particular DNA band or repeats in the ycf1 gene and in the banding patterns and a given intergenic regions of rps16-trnUUG ginsenoside profile or abundance was and rpl32-tmUAG. The complete found, this foundational research 45S nrDNA unit sequences were needs to be expanded to identify if 11,091 Bp, representing a consensus there is unique DNA fingerprints can single transcriptional unit with an be associated with desired ginsenoside intergenic spacer region. Comparative profiles in this species. analysis of these sequences, as well as those previously reported for three

219 M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN, W. SUN, Q. CHENG

Such DNA fingerprints could be unweighted pair group method with useful in selecting stock plants for use arithmetic average is presented in as explants for in vitro ginsenoside Fig.2. production or for breeding of desired Kim et al. (2018) indicated that cultivars of this economically diploid Panax species diverged in important medicinal crop. association with global warming in Relationship tree of individual stock Southern Asia, and two North plants (lines) of American ginseng American species evolved via two (Panax quinquefolius L.) revealed by intercontinental migrations.

220 FAMOUS TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS AND THEIR PLANT GENOMES

Figure 2 - Relationship tree of individual stock plants (lines) of American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) revealed by unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (Kim et al. 2018).

Two whole genome duplications photosynthesis under low light. Gene (WGD) occurred in the family map of Panax ginseng DMY Araliaceae (including Panax) after chloroplast genome sequence is divergence with the Apiaceae, the shown in Fig. 3. more recent one contributing to the The ginsenoside biosynthesis ability of P. ginseng to over winter, pathway can also be implemented in enabling it to spread broadly through the microbial system, such as yeast to the Northern Hemisphere. Functional produce various type of ginsenosides and evolutionary analyses suggest that in a massive quantity using the raw production of pharmacologically materials from industries as important dammarane-type implemented for the opioids in ginsenosides originated in Panax and Papaver somniferum. One of the are produced largely in shoot tissues major concerns for taking ginseng as a and transported to roots; that newly medicinal drug is their completely evolved P. ginseng fatty acid unproven myths on its toxic effects. desaturases increase freezing Currently, the protein data for Panax tolerance, and that unprecedented have limitations, where those retention of chlorophyll a/b binding produced from a few studies are not protein genes enables efficient able to be used for further studies.

221 M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN, W. SUN, Q. CHENG

Hence, in future, the field of be considered for improving the proteomics is expected to emerge with annotation of Panax genome optimized high-throughput sequencing (Boopathu et al., 2019). Genome techniques to produce large-scale data sequences of Panax species is shown sets than the earlier ones, and it has to in Table 2.

Figure 3 - Gene map of Panax ginseng DMY chloroplast genome sequence. Genes shown outside the outer circle are transcribed clockwise, and those inside are transcribed counterclockwise. Genes belonging to different functional groups are color coded. The dashed area in the inner circle indicates GC content of the chloroplast (Zhao et al., 2015).

222 FAMOUS TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS AND THEIR PLANT GENOMES

223 M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN, W. SUN, Q. CHENG

Xu et al. (2017) reported the were recognized, and these UGTs entire genome sequence of Panax accounted for one of the largest gene ginseng using next-generation families of ginseng. Tandem repeats sequencing. The 3.5-Gb nucleotide contributed to the duplication and sequence contains more than 60% divergence of UGTs. Molecular repeats and encodes 42006 predicted modeling of UGTs in the 71st, 74th, genes. A number of 22 transcriptome and 94th families revealed a datasets and mass spectrometry regiospecific conserved motif located images of ginseng roots were adopted at the N-terminus. Molecular docking to precisely quantify the functional predicted that this motif captures genes; 31 genes were identified to be ginsenoside precursors. The ginseng involved in the mevalonic acid genome represents a valuable resource pathway; eight of these genes were for understanding and improving the annotated as 3-hydroxy-3- breeding, cultivation, and synthesis methylgluatryl-CoA reductases, which biology of this important herb. displayed diverse structures and P. ginseng genome assembly and expression characteristics. The total functional gene annotations are 225 UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) presented in Fig. 4.

Figure 4 - P. ginseng genome assembly and functional gene annotations: (A) Phylogenetic tree and divergence data of 14 species, including P. ginseng, based on the proteins of 383 single-copy genes annotated to the genome sequence of each species; (B) Distribution of orthologous gene families in P. ginseng and four sequenced species: carrot (Daucus carota), coffee (Coffea canephora), Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) (Xu et al., 2018).

Goji berry , compared to Lycium Wetters et al. reported barbarum. Differences could be morphological and molecular based traced on the molecular level as well; plans for the differentiation of Lycium using the psbA-trnH barcoding barbarum and Lycium chinense. The marker, they detected a single two different Goji species vary nucleotide substitution that was used significantly in size, with an to develop an easy one-step almost double average seed area in differentiation tool based on ARMS

224 FAMOUS TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS AND THEIR PLANT GENOMES

(amplification refractory mutation experimented commercial goji system). Two diagnostic primers used products contained fruits of the in distinct multiplex PCRs yield a species Goji berry (var. barbarym), second diagnostic band in a leading to the assumption that subsequent gel electrophoresis for consumer protection is satisfactory. or Lycium chinense, Phylogenetic tree, based on psbA- respectively. The ARMS approach is a tmH spacer sequences of strong, but simple, tool to trace either morphological identified Lycium of the two different Goji species. Both reference plants and commercial Goji the morphological and the molecular products, is shown in Fig. 5. analysis showed that all of the

Figure 5 - Phylogenetic tree based on psbA-tmH spacer sequences of morphological identified Lycium reference plants and commercial Goji products. There were a total 532 positions in the final dataset (Wetters et al., 2018).

225 M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN, W. SUN, Q. CHENG

The fruiting stage was identified Tinggi and Sabah and 56.25% as the most responsive in the distant- similarity between Tanjung, 64.27% grating approach and 123 miRNAs similarity between Bukit Tinggi. DNA were found as up-regulating in the sequencing of the polymorphic PCR grafted fruit, which is remarkably products of Tanjung Sepat ginger higher, compared to the grafted shoot revealed the characteristics features of tip. Potential targets of differentially a putative new gene: a core promoter expressed miRNAs were found to be sequence, an enhancer and a involved in diverse metabolic and transcription start site. Cluster regulatory pathways. ADP binding analysis using the unweighted pair activities, molybdopterin synthase group method with arithmetic average complex and RNA helicase activity (UPGMA) was used to construct a were found as enriched terms of GO phylogenetic tree, which indicated (Gene ontology) analysis. that Bukrit Tinggi ginger is Additionally, metabolic pathways was genetically more closely related to revealed as the most significantly Tanjung Sepat ginger than to Sabah pathway in KEGG analysis. The ginger. On the basis of their results, information of the small RNA they conclude that there is genotypic transcriptomes that are obtained might variation among ginger cultivars, and be first miRNAs elucidation for a the microsatellite DNA polymerase distant-grafting system, particularly useful for detecting polymorphic between goji and tomato. DNA in Malaysian ginger cultivars. Prasath et al. (2014) found that a total Ginger of 36359 and 32312 assembled Mahdi et al. (2012) did experiment transcript sequences were obtained on three Malaysian ginger cultivars from both amada and (Bukit Tinggi, TanjungSepat and ginger. The roles of the unigenes Sabah) were collected and examined cover a diverse set of molecular for genetic polymorphisms using functions and biological processes, microsatellite DNA primers. The among which they identified a large single microsatellite oligonucleotide number of genes associated with primers (CATA)5, (GATA)5 and resistance to stresses and response to (GAC)6 were used in polymerase biotic stimuli. Large-scale expression chain reactions (PCRs). The PCR profiling showed that many of the reactions produced seven disease resistance related genes were polymorphic bands with an average of expressed more in C. amada. 2.334 polymorphic bands per primer, Comparative analysis also identified leading to an average polymorphism genes belonging to different pathways rate of 17.9%. Cluster analysis of plant defense against biotic stresses revealed 87.50% similarity between that are differentially expressed in Bukit Tinggi and Tanjung Sepat, either ginger or ginger. The 64.27% similarity between Bukit identification of many defense related

226 FAMOUS TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS AND THEIR PLANT GENOMES genes differentially expressed difference in resistance to provides many insights to the R. solanacearum between ginger and resistance mechanism to Ralstonia mango ginger were identified. solanacearum and for studying Divergence in the expression levels of potential pathways involved in transcription factors (TF) transcripts responses to pathogens. Also, several between C. amada and Zingiber candidate genes that may highlight the officinale is shown in Fig. 6.

Figure 6 - Divergence in the expression levels of transcription factors (TF) transcripts between C. amada and Z. officinale (Prasath et al., 2014)

Cui et al. (2019) sequenced and gene information, and codon usage analyzed the Z. officinale chloroplast pattern were revealed. Secondly, genome. Firstly, the basic structures, 78 SSRs and 42 long repeat sequences

227 M.H. SHAHRAJABIAN, W. SUN, Q. CHENG were identified. Thirdly, a comparative Zingiber species has a close analysis within the family relationship with species in was executed and some Kaempferia and Curcuma and clearly variable regions, which have the show a phylogenetic relationship with potential to become DNA markers species in the family Zingiberaceae, were revealed. The results showed or even the order Zingiberaceae, that small single-copy (SSC) was the through molecular methods. Gene most variable region and may be map of the Zingiber officinale undergoing rapid nucleotide complete chloroplast genome is substitution in Zingiberaceae species. shown in Fig. 7. The ML tree indicated that the

Figure 7 - Gene map of the Zingiber officinale complete chloroplast genome (Cui et al., 2019)

228 FAMOUS TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS AND THEIR PLANT GENOMES

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