Multilayered regulation of secondary metabolism in medicinal plants
Yan Zhao, Guanze Liu, Feng Yang, Yanli Liang, Qingqing Gao, Chunfan Xiang, Xia Li, Runjun Yang, Guanghui Zhang, Huifeng Jiang, Lei Yu, Shengchao Yang
Abstract
Medicinal plants represent a huge reservoir of secondary metabolites (SMs), substances with significant pharmaceutical and industrial potential. However, obtaining secondary metabolites remains a challenge due to their low-yield accumulation in medicinal plants; moreover, these secondary metabolites are produced through tightly coordinated pathways involving many spatiotemporally and environmentally regulated steps. The first regulatory layer involves a complex network of transcription factors; a second, more recently discovered layer of complexity in the regulation of SMs is epigenetic modification, such as DNA methylation, histone modification and small RNA-based mechanisms, which can jointly or separately influence secondary metabolites by regulating gene expression. Here, we summarize the findings in the fields of genetic and epigenetic regulation with a special emphasis on SMs in medicinal plants, providing a new perspective on the multiple layers of regulation of gene expression.