The Genome of Artemisia annua Provides Insight into the Evolution of Asteraceae Family and Artemisinin Biosynthesis

Artemisia annua, commonly known as sweet wormwood or Qinghao, is a shrub native to China and has long been used for medicinal purposes. A. annua is now cultivated globally as the only natural source of a potent anti-malarial compound, artemisinin. Here, we report a high-quality draft assembly of the 1.74-gigabase genome of A. annua, which is highly heterozygous, rich in repetitive sequences, and contains 63 226 protein-coding genes, one of the largest numbers among the sequenced plant species. We found that, as one of a few sequenced genomes in the Asteraceae, the A. annua genome contains a large number of genes specific to this large angiosperm clade. Notably, the expansion and functional diversification of genes encoding enzymes involved in terpene biosynthesis are consistent with the evolution of the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway. We further revealed by transcriptome profiling that A. annua has evolved the sophisticated transcriptional regulatory networks underlying artemisinin biosynthesis. Based on comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic analyses we generated transgenic A. annua lines producing high levels of artemisinin, which are now ready for large-scale production and thereby will help meet the challenge of increasing global demand of artemisinin.

NATURVETENSKAP Biologi Biokemi och molekylärbiologi hsv//swe
NATURAL SCIENCES Biological Sciences Biochemistry and Molecular Biology hsv//eng
Artemisia annua
artemisinin
genome
evolution
transcriptome
metabolic engineering
Biokemi
Biochemistry

Zhang, LidaShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Liao, ZhihuaSouthwest Univ, China (author)
Wang, ShengyueChinese Natl Human Genome Ctr Shanghai, China (author)
Yan, TingxiangShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Shi, PuShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Liu, MengShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Fu, XueqingShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Pan, QifangShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Wang, YuliangShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Lv, ZongyouShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Lu, XuShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China;China Pharmaceut Univ, China (author)
Zhang, FangyuanShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China;Southwest Univ, China (author)
Jiang, WeiminShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Ma, YananShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Chen, MinghuiShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Hao, XiaolongShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Li, LingShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Tang, YueliShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Lv, GangChinese Natl Human Genome Ctr Shanghai, China (author)
Zhou, YanChinese Natl Human Genome Ctr Shanghai, China (author)
Sun, XiaofenShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Brodelius, Peter E.Linnéuniversitetet,Institutionen för kemi och biomedicin (KOB)(Swepub:lnu)nbrpe (author)
Rose, Jocelyn K. C.Cornell Univ, USA (author)
Tang, KexuanShanghai Jiao Tong Univ, China (author)
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ, ChinaSouthwest Univ, China (creator_code:org_t)

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