Comparative transcriptome analysis of Gastrodia elata (Orchidaceae) in response to fungus symbiosis to identify gastrodin biosynthesis-related genes

BACKGROUND: Gastrodia elata Blume (Orchidaceae) is an important Chinese medicine with several functional components. In the life cycle of G. elata, the orchid develops a symbiotic relationship with two compatible mycorrhizal fungi Mycena spp. and Armillaria mellea during seed germination to form vegetative propagation corm and vegetative growth to develop tubers, respectively. Gastrodin (p-hydroxymethylphenol-beta-D-glucoside) is the most important functional component in G. elata, and gastrodin significantly increases from vegetative propagation corms to tubers. To address the gene regulation mechanism in gastrodin biosynthesis in G. elata, a comparative analysis of de novo transcriptome sequencing among the vegetative propagation corms and tubers of G. elata and A. mellea was conducted using deep sequencing. RESULTS: Transcriptome comparison between the vegetative propagation corms and juvenile tubers of G. elata revealed 703 differentially expressed unigenes, of which 298 and 405 unigenes were, respectively up-regulated (fold-change ≥ 2, q-value 10) and down-regulated (fold-change ≤ 0. 5, q-value 10) in juvenile tubers. After Gene Ontology (GO) annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, 112 up-regulated unigenes with KEGG Ortholog identifiers (KOids) or enzyme commission (EC) numbers were assigned to 159 isogroups involved in seventy-eight different pathways, and 132 down-regulated unigenes with KOids or EC numbers were assigned to 168 isogroups, involved in eighty different pathways. The analysis of the isogroup genes from all pathways revealed that the two unigenes TRINITYDN54282c0g1 (putative monooxygenases) and TRINITYDN50323c0g1 (putative glycosyltransferases) might participate in hydroxylation and glucosylation in the gastrodin biosynthetic pathway. CONCLUSIONS: The gene expression of the two unique unigenes encoding monooxygenase and glycosyltransferase significantly increases from vegetative propagation corms to tubers, and the molecular basis of gastrodin biosynthesis in the tubers of G. elata is proposed.