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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1436560

Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of Dendrobium chrysotoxum and D. thyrsiflorum reveal the biosynthetic pathway from gigantol to erianin

Provisionally accepted
Lihang Xie Lihang Xie *Qiuying Chen Qiuying Chen Najing Cheng Najing Cheng Yue Zhang Yue Zhang Yueteng Zhang Yueteng Zhang Kangdong Liu Kangdong Liu Yao Ma Yao Ma
  • Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Erianin is one of the most representative bibenzyls with significant inhibitory activity against a wide range of tumor cells. However, the low erianin level in natural materials has severely inhibited its further development in health care. Our aim was to uncover the erianin biosynthetic pathway to lay the foundation for promoting its production.Firstly, we screened and obtained two Dendrobium species (Dendrobium thyrsiflorum stems with lower erianin content and D. chrysotoxum stems with higher erianin content), belonging to the same Dendrobium section (Chrysotoxae). A systematic analysis of bibenzyl structure and content in two stems revealed that gigantol might be an erianin biosynthetic intermediate, which was verified by introducing deuterium-labeled gigantol. Chemical structure analyses indicated that gigantol was modified by two kinds of enzymes (hydroxylases and O-methyltransferases), leading to erianin synthesis. Upregulated hydroxylases and O-methyltransferases (OMTs) were screened out and were performed by molecular docking simulation experiments. We propose a rational biosynthetic pathway from gigantol to erianin, as well as relevant enzymes involved in the process. Our findings should significantly contribute to comprehensive resolution of the erianin biosynthetic pathway, promote its large-scale industrial production as well as contribute to biosynthesis studies of other bibenzyls.

    Keywords: Dendrobium, erainin, biosynthetic pathway, Metabolomics, Transcriptomics

    Received: 22 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xie, Chen, Cheng, Zhang, Zhang, Liu and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lihang Xie, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.