The exploration of methyl jasmonate on the tanshinones biosynthesis in hair roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge and Salvia castanea f. tomentosa Stib

Abstract Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (SMB) is a traditional Chinese medicinal material, its ketones have very important medicinal value. Salvia castanea f. tomentosa Stib (SCT) mainly distributed in Nyingchi, Tibet. Its pharmacological effects are similar to SMB, but its tanshinones are higher than the latter. Methyl jasmonate (MJ) as an inducer can induce the synthesis of tanshinones in SMB and SCT. However, the specific mechanism of action is still ambiguous. Therefore, this study used SMB and SCT hair root as an experimental material and MJ as a variable. In this study, we not only compared the content of endogenous jasmonic acid (JA) and MJ in SMB and SCT; but also compared the differences in the mechanism of action of MJ on the two. Our research has reached the following conclusions: firstly, MJ promotes the accumulation of tanshinones and related ingredients in the metabolic pathways of SMB and SCT. After MJ treatment, the content of related components and gene expression are increased. Secondly, it is not as previously reported that SCT has a higher response to MJ than SMB. Our experimental results show that the overall response of the two to MJ has no significant difference. There is only a difference between the individual components. It is speculated that the different responses of secondary metabolism-related genes to MJ may lead to different metabolic responses of tanshinones between the two.