SAMN10662287

Angelica sinensis Radix (ASR) is used worldwide due to its numerous pharmaceutical effects. According to Chinese medicine theories, the three medicinal parts of ASR (heads, bodies and tails) exert different therapeutic effects because of their active ingredients, such as organic acids and essential oils (mainly including ferulic acid and ligustulide). The distribution of active ingredients may be associated with the expression of vital genes involved in biosynthesis pathways. However, the genetic and biochemical properties of ASR remain unclear. In this study, HPLC fingerprint results showed that five widely used active ingredients（ferulic acid, ligustulide, senkyunolide H, senkyunolide A and n-butylphathlide）were distributed unevenly in the three ASR medicinal parts. PLS-DA analysis demonstrated the differentiation of the ASR heads from the two other parts. The contents of ferulic acid compounds were significantly higher in tails than in the heads and bodies, and the amounts of ligustulide were higher in the heads than in the tails and bodies (the two main marker compounds). A total of 25,062, 10,148and 29,504 unigenes were specifically expressed in the heads, bodies and tails, respectively. Additionally, we identified 28 unigenes involved in two phenylpropanoid biosynthesis (PB) pathways and ferulic acid metabolites. Of these transcripts, 17 unigenes (60.7%) in the PB pathway were highly expressed in the tails. The expression levels of PAL, C3H, and CQT transcripts were significantly higher in the tails than in the other root parts. Using WGCNA, we identified 17 co-expression modules that were constructed from the 19,198 genes in the nine samples of ASR. Chemical and transcriptome analyses revealed the distribution contents and pivotal transcripts involved in the ferulic acid biosynthesis-related pathways. The spatial gene expression pattern preliminarily explained the discrepancy of integral medical activities. These results could contribute to elucidate molecular mechanism underlying discrepant pharmaceutical activities among different medicinal parts of ASR.