Background/Objectives: Environmental conditions in natural and cultivation-managed habitats strongly influence plant physiology and medicinal quality. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying metabolic differentiation in Anoectochilus roxburghii remain poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the metabolic and transcriptional differences between wild and cultivated A. roxburghii and to identify the regulatory mechanisms driving habitat-associated variation in metabolite profiles. Methods: We applied integrated non-targeted metabolomics and transcriptomics to compare metabolic profiles and gene expression in the leaves and stems of 15-month-old wild and cultivated A. roxburghii plants. Gene–metabolite correlation analysis was performed to identify coordinated correlation networks associated with key biosynthetic pathways. Results: Our analyses revealed clear differences in metabolite composition and transcriptional patterns between habitat types, suggesting distinct strategies of metabolic resource allocation. Wild plants showed significant enrichment of amino acids and other primary metabolites, whereas cultivated plants accumulated higher levels of flavonoids. Gene–metabolite correlation analysis indicated that multiple flavonoid metabolites were closely associated with key structural genes, including F3H, C12RT1, and HHT1, forming a tightly connected correlation network. In addition, several transcription factor families, including MYB, bHLH, WRKY, and AP2/ERF, showed strong correlations with genes involved in the flavonoid pathway, suggesting that flavonoid accumulation in cultivated plants may be associated with coordinated transcriptional control. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings suggest that habitat conditions are associated with differences in metabolic networks and resource allocation in A. roxburghii. This work provides new insight into the metabolic plasticity of this medicinal plant and highlights potential factors associated with molecular mechanisms that may contribute to variation in medicinal quality.
Wang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.