Correlations between SmCPS1 promoter polymorphism and tanshinone contents in Salvia miltiorrhiza

Abstract

Copalyl diphosphate synthase 1 (SmCPS1) is the first committed enzyme in tanshinone biosynthesis. The promoter region plays an important role in the transcriptional regulation of genes. Mutations in the promoter region may affect gene expression, resulting in changes in the amount of metabolites. In this study, we investigated the SmCPS1 gene promoter region together with the 388 bp downstream from the translation start site and the content of tanshinones of 12 different genotypes of Salvia miltiorrhiza. The cis-elements of SmCPS1 promoter were predicted and analysed by the Plant Transcriptional Regulatory Map database. We found (1) a different correlation between the polymorphism in the promoter region and the contents of tanshinones; (2) functional polymorphic loci - four tandem repeat variations, three indels and five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five cis-elements, three SNPs in exons and two SNPs in introns; (3) the correlation coefficient was higher when only functional (informative) polymorphic loci were considered. These findings have laid the foundation for further exploring the interspecific variation of S. miltiorrhiza and its relationship with the contents of tanshinones.

Keywords

• cis-elements
• copalyl diphosphate synthase 1
• danshen
• polymorphism