Transcriptome analysis of methyl jasmonate-elicited Panax ginseng adventitious roots to discover the temporal feature of ginsenoside biosynthesis

Ginseng, a traditional precious Chinese herb of high medicinal value, has ginsenoside as its main active medicinal ingredient. Modern pharmacological studies have confirmed that ginsenoside plays a crucial role in treating various diseases and daily healthcare. While the catalytic pathway in ginsenoside biosynthesis has been extensively studied, its regulatory mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, the regulatory mechanism of ginsenoside synthesis was investigated from the perspective of inducer regulation combined with transcription factor regulation. Methyl Jasmonate (MeJA), as an important phytohormone, is widely involved in plant growth and development, resistance to adversity, secondary metabolite synthesis and other biological processes. Here, 11,789 differentially expressed genes of ginseng in response to MeJA induction were obtained by transcriptome sequencing and analysis of ginseng adventitious roots with different durations of MeJA induction (0, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108, and 120 h), which were then subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) functional annotation and classification of functional genotypes, and obtained the The overall characteristics of ginseng adventitious roots in response to MeJA induction were obtained. Further, the dynamic temporal characteristics of ginseng adventitious roots in response to MeJA induction were obtained by comparing the phenotypes of ginsenoside content, the number of differentially expressed genes, GO functional annotations, and functional gene types at different induction time points. Finally, gene modules that were significantly associated with the phenotype of ginsenoside content were obtained from the above differentially expressed genes using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) analysis, and the functionally important genes among them were identified and analysed in the interaction network. The above study results will lay a theoretical groundwork for comprehensively and deeply interpreting MeJA’s dynamic regulatory mechanism, offer information for researching ginsenoside synthesis and regulatory mechanisms, and provide a database for identifying important functional genes in ginsenoside synthesis and studying the molecular mechanism. This is of great value and significance for the development of ginseng basic research.