Expression levels of hdr, fds and idi genes in aerial organs of Artemisia diffusa and their relationships with some terpene contents

In view of the importance of terpene in human’s life, analyzing the relationship between them and the involved genes are of crucial necessity. The necessity is for exploring influential genes. Among different plants containing terpene, Artemisia is included. In this study, several genes Farnesyl diphosphate synthase (fds), Hydroxy-2-methyl-2-(E)-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase (hdr) and Isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase (idi) in pathways 2-c-methyl-erythritol 4- phosphate (MEP) and Mevalonate (MVA) were analyzed in comparison to some monoterpene and sesquiterpene content in three tissues namely leaf, bud and flower of Artemisia diffusa. This study was conducted to compare RT-PCR data of genes with data from terpene GC-MS results. Results showed that it seemed for certain terpenes production in certain tissues, the above genes had limiting function (as idi in bud for 1,8- cineole and germacrene-D). These genes play important roles in terpene production and for some other terpenes, probably, other downstream genes such as terpene synthase had this limiting role (about beta-farnescene, for example, genes idi and fds had no limiting role in none of tissues mentioned above). Another point which casts doubt on fds, hdr and idi functions in terpene production is post-transcriptional regulation of these genes, the factor which was not evaluated in this study.