Gene expression analysis of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase and TcGLIP multifunctional genes in pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium Vis.) under methyl jasmonate treatment

The gene 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (DXS) and TcGLIP multifunctional genes are two key genes involved in pyrethrins biosynthetic pathway, which retain insecticidal properties. DXS gene in the MEP pathway produces 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate using pyruvate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. TcGLIP gene is involved at the last steps of pyrethrins biosynthesis pathway and integrates chrysanthemyl-CoA and pyrethrolone, which are produced in the MEP pathway and lipoxygenase pathways, respectively to yield pyrethrin I. Based on the significances of pyrethrins, further identification and studies are needed on these metabolites. The aim of this study was to isolate DXS gene in pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium Vis.) from the Asteraceae, as well as expression analysis of these two genes under methyl-jasmonate treatment. In the present work, the nucleotide sequences of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase gene of different plant species were obtained from NCBI database and subsequently aligned with ClustalW online software. Specific primers were designed from the conserved regions of aligned sequences. The polymerase chain reaction product with 715bp length showed that the specific primers had high efficiency to isolate DXS. In addition, gene expression analysis under methyl-jasmonate treatment showed that both DXS and TcGLIP were up-regulated in response to methyl jasmonate elicitor. Our data showed that methyl jasmonate treatment in seedling stage could be used as a suitable elicitor to increase pyrethrin production.