The terpenoids in Pogostemon cablin have complex structures and abundant pharmacological effects. Patchouli alcohol(PA) and pogostone(PO) have a high medicinal value by virtue of anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and other biological activities. Due to the low content of terpenoid metabolites in P. cablin, the study of biosynthesis and metabolism regulation can provide a biosynthetic basis for obtaining high-content terpenoids. In this study, key enzyme genes in biosynthesis, transcription factors in metabolism regulation, spatio-temporal expression of terpene synthase were reviewed, aiming to provide a reference for the development, protection, and utilization of P. cablin resources.
Pogostemon/genetics* ; Terpenes ; Transcription Factors/genetics*

Molecular pharmacognosy( MP) is a new interdisciplinary science,which integrates the pharmacognosy and molecular biology,and focuses on the crude drugs' classification and identification,cultivation and protection,and production of active ingredients at the molecular level. Pogostemon cablin is one of the ten major southern medicines in China,MP research on this famous herb has developed on the basis of traditional research methods,and achieved certain results. This article summarized the MP research achievements of P. cablin in recent years,the prospect of this field is also discussed to provide references for the protection,development and utilization of P. cablin resources.
China ; Lamiaceae ; Molecular Biology ; Pharmacognosy ; Pogostemon

Patchoulol is an important sesquiterpenoid in the volatile oil of Pogostemon cablin, and is also considered to be the main contributing component to the pharmacological efficacy and fragrance of P. cablin oil, which has antibacterial, antitumor, antioxidant, and other biological activities. Currently, patchoulol and its essential oil blends are in high demand worldwide, but the traditional plant extraction method has many problems such as wasting land and polluting the environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a new method to produce patchoulol efficiently and at low cost. To broaden the production method of patchouli and achieve the heterologous production of patchoulol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the patchoulol synthase(PS) gene from P. cablin was codon optimized and placed under the inducible strong promoter GAL1 to transfer into the yeast platform strain YTT-T5, thereby obtaining strain PS00 with the production of(4.0±0.3) mg·L~(-1) patchoulol. To improve the conversion rate, this study used protein fusion method to fuse SmFPS gene from Salvia miltiorrhiza with PS gene, leading to increase the yield of patchoulol to(100.9±7.4) mg·L~(-1) by 25-folds. By further optimizing the copy number of the fusion gene, the yield of patchoulol was increased by 90% to(191.1±32.7) mg·L~(-1). By optimizing the fermentation process, the strain was able to achieve a patchouli yield of 2.1 g·L~(-1) in a high-density fermentation system, which was the highest yield so far. This study provides an important basis for the green production of patchoulol.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolism* ; Sesquiterpenes/metabolism* ; Pogostemon ; Oils, Volatile/metabolism*

Ralstonia solanacearum strain PRS-84 used in this study was isolated from diseased Pogostemon cablin plants in our previous study.The competent cells of R.solanacearum strain PRS-84 were transformed by electroporation with Tn5 transposon and then were plated on TTC agar plates containing kanamycin to select for kanamycin-resistant colonies.The detection of kanamycin-resistant gene in kanamycin-resistant colonies was performed by PCR.Further,the flanking fragments of Tn5 transposon insertion site in the mutants were amplified by inverse PCR,and the flanking fragments were sequenced and analyzed.The results indicated that the kanamycin-resistant colonies were obtained in the transformation experiment of R.solanacearum strain PRS-84 by electroporation with Tn5 transposon.A specific band of approximately 700 bp was amplified by PCR from kanamycin-resistant colonies.The flanking sequences of Tn5 transposon insertion site in the transformants were obtained by inverse PCR.After sequencing and sequence analysis of Tn5 transposon insertion site in mutants,we preliminarily speculated that the Tn5 transposon inserted in the typ A gene,rec O gene and gid A gene in three mutants,respectively.A random mutagenesis system of R.solanacearum strain PRS-84 by electroporation with Tn5 transposon has been established,and the Tn5 insertion mutants have been obtained.This study might facilitate the creation of mutant library and the discovery of the virulence gene of R.solanacearum isolated from P.cablin.
DNA Transposable Elements ; Electroporation ; Genes, Bacterial ; Mutagenesis, Insertional ; Pogostemon ; microbiology ; Ralstonia solanacearum ; genetics ; Virulence

Farnesyl diphosphate synthase(FPPS) is a key enzyme at the branch point of the sesquiterpene biosynthetic pathway, but there are no reports on the transcriptional regulation of FPPS promoter in Pogostemon cabin. In the early stage of this study, we obtained the binding protein PcFBA-1 of FPPS gene promoter in P. cabin. In order to explore the possible mechanism of PcFBA-1 involved in the regulation of patchouli alcohol biosynthesis, this study performed PCR-based cloning and sequencing analysis of PcFBA-1, analyzed the expression patterns of PcFBA-1 in different tissues by fluorescence quantitative PCR and its subcellular localization using the protoplast transformation system, detected the binding of PcFBA-1 protein to the FPPS promoter in vitro with the yeast one-hybrid system, and verified its transcriptional regulatory function by dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. The findings demonstrated that the cloned PcFBA-1 had an open reading frame(ORF) of 1 131 bp, encoding a protein of 376 amino acids, containing two conserved domains named F-box-like superfamily and FBA-1 superfamily, and belonging to the F-box family. Moreover, neither signal peptide nor transmembrane domain was contained, implying that it was an unstable hydrophilic protein. In addition, as revealed by fluorescence quantitative PCR results, PcFBA-1 had the highest expression in leaves, and there was no significant difference in expression in roots or stems. PcFBA-1 protein was proved mainly located in the cytoplasm. Furthermore, yeast one-hybrid screening and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay showed that PcFBA-1 was able to bind to FPPS promoter both in vitro and in vivo to enhance the activity of FPPS promoter. In summary, this study identifies a new transcription factor PcFBA-1 in P. cabin, which directly binds to the FPPS gene promoter to enhance the promoter activity. This had laid a foundation for the biosynthesis of patchouli alcohol and other active ingre-dients and provided a basis for metabolic engineering and genetic improvement of P. cabin.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Geranyltranstransferase/genetics* ; Pogostemon ; Transcription Factors/genetics*

This study aims to explore the relationship of DNA methylation with the contents of the index components as well as the growth and development of Pogostemon cablin. The demethylation reagent 5-azacytidine(5-azaC) was used to treat the tissue culture seedlings of patchouliol-type P. cablin. High performance liquid chromatography was employed to evaluate the changes of DNA methy-lation in P. cablin, and GC-MS to detect the contents of index components in P.cablin. The agronomic characters of P.cablin were measured using the common methods. The results showcased that DNA methylation of P.cablin was significantly reduced by 5-azaC in a concentration-dependent manner. Thirty days after treatment with 5-azaC at different concentrations, the content of patchouli alcohol changed slightly; compared with that in the control group, the content of pogostone in 50 μmol·L~(-1) and 100 μmol·L~(-1) 5-azaC groups was significantly up-regulated. The 100 μmol·L~(-1) 5-azaC group had the largest differences in contents of pogostone and patchouli alcohol compared with the control group, followed by the 50 μmol·L~(-1) 5-azaC group. Ninety days after disinhibition, the content of pogostone in the treatment group was significantly increased and the content of patchouli alcohol was significantly decreased. In addition, 5-azaC significantly inhibited the growth and development of P.cablin in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that DNA methylation regulates the biosynthesis of the index components in patchouliol-type P.cablin and proper demethylation can directly promote the synthesis of pogostone and indirectly affect the accumulation of patchouli alcohol.
Azacitidine ; DNA Methylation ; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry ; Oils, Volatile ; Pogostemon/genetics*