近日，中国科学院北京基因组研究所重点实验室于军研究员及其团队同中国中医科学院中药研究所开展合作，利用新一代高通量测序平台（Illumina's GA平台）分别对两种不同药效金银花品种（FLJ和rFLJ）的三个不同阶段的基因表达进行了测序分析，相关研究成果在《BMC Genomics》杂志发表。
金银花属忍冬科，它作为抗炎免疫的中药材有着悠久的历史，并且具有宣散风热，清解血毒等功效。但金银花的化学质量较不稳定，不利于对其进行质量评估。此次科研人员通过对其开展基因组相关分析，不仅得到金银花不同花期的转录表达图谱，同时还建立了相关的酶库。研究中，科研人员整合转录组与代谢途径分析，揭示这一体系是否用于评价金银花的活性成分积累及其品质。并根据进化分析揭示了金银花直系同源和旁系同源特定功能分化以及控制活性成分的基因功能差异。
以上工作的开展，为评估金银花质量金银花中草药的研究及其药效评估奠定了重要的科学基础。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1186/1471-2164-13-195
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Genetic variation and metabolic pathway intricacy govern the active compound content and quality of the Chinese medicinal plant Lonicera japonica thunb
Yuan Yuan, Lipu Song, Minghui Li, Guiming Liu, Yanan Chu, Luyu Ma, Yuanyuan Zhou, Xiao Wang, Wei Gao, Shuangshuang Qin, Jun Yu, Xumin Wang and Luqi Huang
Background Traditional Chinese medicine uses various herbs for the treatment of various diseases for thousands of years and it is now time to assess the characteristics and effectiveness of these medicinal plants based on modern genetic and molecular tools. The herb Flos Lonicerae Japonicae (FLJ or Lonicera japonica Thunb.) is used as an anti-inflammatory agent but the chemical quality of FLJ and its medicinal efficacy has not been consistent. Here, we analyzed the transcriptomes and metabolic pathways to evaluate the active medicinal compounds in FLJ and hope that this approach can be used for a variety of medicinal herbs in the future. Results We assess transcriptomic differences between FLJ and L. japonica Thunb. var. chinensis (Watts) (rFLJ), which may explain the variable medicinal effects. We acquired transcriptomic data (over 100 million reads) from the two herbs, using RNA-seq method and the Illumina GAII platform. The transcriptomic profiles contain over 6,000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for each of the three flower development stages from FLJ, as well as comparable amount of ESTs from the rFLJ flower bud. To elucidate enzymatic divergence on biosynthetic pathways between the two varieties, we correlated genes and their expression profiles to known metabolic activities involving the relevant active compounds, including phenolic acids, flavonoids, terpenoids, and fatty acids. We also analyzed the diversification of genes that process the active compounds to distinguish orthologs and paralogs together with the pathways concerning biosynthesis of phenolic acid and its connections with other related pathways. Conclusions Our study provides both an initial description of gene expression profiles in flowers of FLJ and its counterfeit rFLJ and the enzyme pool that can be used to evaluate FLJ quality. Detailed molecular-level analyses allow us to decipher the relationship between metabolic pathways involved in processing active medicinal compounds and gene expressions of their processing enzymes. Our evolutionary analysis revealed specific functional divergence of orthologs and paralogs, which lead to variation in gene functions that govern the profile of active compounds.
