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Paris polyphylla Smith is a perennial medicinal herb with records from around 2000 years ago. Polyphyllins are the main bioactive compounds of this herb, which are found to have remarkable effects on bacteriostatic, antiphlogistic, sedative, and antitumor. However, the market demand for P. polyphylla is sharply increasing, and the wild resources are threatened by plundering exploitation. Integrating molecular data of P. polyphylla can benefit the sustainable resource exploitation. Here, we constructed PPDP (Paris polyphylla Data Portal) to provide a data platform for polyphyllin biosynthesis and germplasm resource research. PPDP integrates related molecular data resources, functional genomics analysis, and morphological identification. The database provides abundant data (transcriptome, CDS, lncRNA, alternative splicing, gene family, SSR, and chloroplast genome) and practical analytical tools (network construction, heatmap of expression profiles, enrichment, and pathway search) with a user-friendly interface. So far, PPDP is the first biomolecular database for the genus Paris plants. In the future, we will gradually add genomic data and other necessary molecular biological information to improve the database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plants synthesize metabolites to adapt to a continuously changing environment. Metabolite biosynthesis often occurs in response to the tissue-specific combinatorial developmental cues that are transcriptionally regulated. Polyphyllins are the major bioactive components in Paris species that demonstrate hemostatic, anti-inflammatory and antitumor effects and have considerable market demands. However, the mechanisms underlying polyphyllin biosynthesis and regulation during plant development have not been fully elucidated. Results: Tissue samples of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis during the four dominant developmental stages were collected and investigated using high-performance liquid chromatography and RNA sequencing. Polyphyllin concentrations in the different tissues were found to be highly dynamic across developmental stages. Specifically, decreasing trends in polyphyllin concentration were observed in the aerial vegetative tissues, whereas an increasing trend was observed in the rhizomes. Consistent with the aforementioned polyphyllin concentration trends, different patterns of spatiotemporal gene expression in the vegetative tissues were found to be closely related with polyphyllin biosynthesis. Additionally, molecular dissection of the pathway components revealed 137 candidate genes involved in the upstream pathway of polyphyllin backbone biosynthesis. Furthermore, gene co-expression network analysis revealed 74 transcription factor genes and one transporter gene associated with polyphyllin biosynthesis and allocation. Conclusions: Our findings outline the framework for understanding the biosynthesis and accumulation of polyphyllins during plant development and contribute to future research in elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying polyphyllin regulation and accumulation in P. polyphylla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paris polyphylla is an important medicinal plant that can biosynthesize polyphyllins with multiple effective therapies, ranging from anti-inflammation to antitumor; however, the genetic diversity of Paris polyphylla is still unclear. To explore the genetic characteristics of cultivation populations in primary planting areas, we developed 10 expressed sequence tag simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers related to polyphyllin backbone biosynthesis and utilized them in 136 individuals from 10 cultivated populations of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis. The genetic diversity index showed that ten loci had relatively high genetic polymorphism levels. Shannon information of loci suggested that more information occurred within population and less information occurred among population. In addition, the overall populations exhibited a low degree of differentiation among populations, but maintained a high degree of genetic diversity among individuals, resulting in high gene flow and general hybridization. The genetic structure analysis revealed that 10 populations possibly derived from two ancestral groups and all individuals were found with different levels of admixture. The two groups were different from the cultivation groups at population level, suggesting the cross-pollination among cultivars. These findings will provide insights into the genetic diversity of the germplasm resources and facilitate marker-assisted breeding for this medicinal herb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]