Characterization and expression analysis of four members genes of flavanone 3-hydroxylase families from Chamaemelum nobile

Abstract

Chamaemelum nobile is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, whose secondary metabolites used in the pharmacology of Chinese medicine. Among them, the flavonoids have great research value. Flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) is one of the core enzymes in the early steps of flavonoid biosynthesis. This study aimed to elucidate the structures, functions, and expression levels of F3H families from C. nobile. Four members of the F3H family were screened from C. nobile transcriptome data and performed bioinformatics analysis. Results showed that CnF3H1~4 had a high similarity with the other F3H plants, and all genes contained two conserved isopenicillin N synthase-like and oxoglutarate/iron-dependent dioxygenase domains. Further analysis revealed that the four CnF3H proteins contained some differences in binding sites. The results of secondary and 3-D structures displayed that the composition and proportion of the four CnF3H secondary structures were basically the same, and their 3D structures were consistent with the secondary structures. The phylogenetic tree displayed that CnF3H2, CnF3H3, and CnF3H4 were grouped with Asteraceae. The expression patterns of CnF3Hs in the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of C. nobile were evaluated using the value of RPKM. The results indicated that CnF3Hs had significant difference in the expression of different tissues. Especially, CnF3H1~3 and CnF3H4 had the highest expression levels in the flowers and roots, respectively. Hence, CnF3Hs played a significant role in the flavonoid metabolism.

Keywords

• bioinformatics analysis; Chamaemelum nobile; expression pattern; F3H families; flavonoids