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Comparative transcriptome analysis and simple sequence repeat marker development for two closely related Isodon species used as ‘Xihuangcao’ herbs


Shanshan Huang
Weiming Hu
Shaohua Zeng
Xiaolu Mo
Ying Wang

Abstract

Purpose: To facilitate the molecular identification of original plants, resolve taxonomic problems and identify standards for ‘Xihuangcao’-based products on the market.
Methods: A transcriptomic analysis of two closely related species, i.e., Isodon serra (Maxim.) (IS) and I. lophanthoides (Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don) Hara, was conducted by using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform, and expressed sequence tag-derived simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were developed based on these transcriptomes.
Results: In total, 149,650 and 103,221 contigs were obtained, with N50 values of 1,400 and 1,516, from the IS and I. lophanthoides RNA-Seq datasets, respectively. These contigs were clustered into 107,777 and 68,220 unigenes, which were functionally annotated to identify the genes involved in therapeutic components. In total, 14,138 and 11,756 EST-SSR motifs were identified, and of these motifs, 7,453 and 6,428 were used to design primers for IS and I. lophanthoides, respectively. After PCR verification and fluorescence-based genotyping, 24 SSR markers with bright bands, high polymorphism, and single amplification were obtained and used to identify closely related Isodon species/varieties.
Conclusion: These data could help herbal scientists identify high-quality herbal plants and provide a reference for genetic improvement and population genetic and phylogenetic studies investigating ‘Xihuangcao’ herbs.

Keywords: Xihuangcao, Transcriptome, EST-SSR, Molecular markers


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1596-9827
print ISSN: 1596-5996