OBJECTIVETo explore the scientific connotation of the discrepant pharmaceutical activities between the head and tail of Angelica sinensis diels (AS), an important herb extensively utilized in Chinese medicine, by the approach of transcriptome sequencing.

METHODSTen samples of AS were randomly collected in Min County, Gansu Province of China. Transcriptome sequencing of AS was accomplished in a commercial ILLumina HiSeq-2000 platform. The transcriptome of each head and tail of AS were fixed in a gene chip, and detected under the procedure of Illumina HiSeq-2000. Differentially expressed unigenes between the heads and tails of AS were selected by Shanghai Biotechnology Corporation (SBC) online analysis system, based on Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and relevant bioinformatic database.

RESULTSTotally 63,585 unigenes were obtained from AS by high-throughput sequencing platform. Among which 3359 unigenes were identified as differentially expressed unigenes between the heads and tails of AS by SBC analysis system scanning. Of which 15 differentially expressed unigenes participate in the metabolic regulation of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis (PB) pathway and ferulic acid metabolites, in response to the distinguished pharmaceutical actions of the heads and tails of AS.

CONCLUSIONDifferent content of ferulic acid in the heads and tails of AS is related to the differentially expressed genes, particularly involved in the PB pathway.