The Genome of Artemisia annuaProvides Insight into the Evolution of Asteraceae Family and Artemisinin Biosynthesis

First author: Qian Shen; Affiliations: Shanghai Jiao Tong University (上海交通大学): Shanghai, China

Corresponding author: Kexuan Tang(唐克轩)

Artemisia annua(香青蒿), commonly known as sweet wormwood or Qinghao, is a shrub (灌木) native to China and has long been used for medicinal purposes. A. annua is now cultivated globally as the only natural source of a potent (有效的) anti-malarial (抗疟疾的) compound, artemisinin (青蒿素). Here, we report a high-quality draft assembly of the 1.74-gigabase genome of A. annua, which is highly heterozygous, rich in repetitive sequences, and contains 63 226 protein-coding genes, one of the largest numbers among the sequenced plant species. We found that, as one of a few sequenced genomes in the Asteraceae (菊科), the A. annua genome contains a large number of genes specific to this large angiosperm clade. Notably, the expansion and functional diversification of genes encoding enzymes involved in terpene biosynthesis (萜烯生物合成) are consistent with the evolution of the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway. We further revealed by transcriptome profiling that A. annua has evolved the sophisticated (复杂的) transcriptional regulatory networks underlying artemisinin biosynthesis. Based on comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic analyses we generated transgenic A. annua lines producing high levels of artemisinin, which are now ready for large-scale production and thereby will help meet the challenge of increasing global demand of artemisinin.

青蒿（拉丁名：Artemisia annua）是中国特有的一种灌木，很早以前就被用作药物治疗疾病。目前，青蒿被全球广泛种植，作为有效抗疟疾复合物青蒿素的唯一自然来源。本文报道了青蒿1.74Gb的基因组，青蒿基因组高度杂合，且富含重复序列，含有63 226个蛋白编码基因，这是已测序植物中编码基因数目最多的物种之一。相比于其他已测序的菊科植物，青蒿含有许多菊科这一大支特异的基因，尤其是参与萜烯生物合成的酶编码基因在青蒿中存在显著的扩增和功能分化，这与青蒿演化出青蒿素的生物合成通路相符合。作者近一步通过转录组的数据揭示了青蒿中已经演化出了复杂的青蒿素生物合成转录调控网络。最后，基于基因组和转录组的分析，作者构建了能够提升青蒿素生物合成的转基因青蒿株系，为目前全球日益增加的青蒿素需求提供大批量生产的方法。

通讯：唐克轩(http://www.agri.sjtu.edu.cn/Data/View/2252)

个人简介：1985年，四川大学，生物系遗传专业，学士；1988年，北京农业大学，作物遗传育种专业，硕士；1991-1996年，英国Nottingham大学，生命科学系植物生物技术专业，博士。

研究方向：植物代谢调控与代谢工程，植物代谢产物生物反应器，青蒿药物植物产品关键技术研究与应用，抗蚜虫转基因小麦新品系和新种质创制等。

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2018.03.015

Journal: Molecular Plant

Published date: 24 April, 2018

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