Genome-wide transcriptome analysis of protein hydrolysate (PH) inducing andrographolide production in Andrographis paniculata

Transcriptomics is a high-throughput study revealing cellular gene expression within an interested organism under specific conditions by measuring the quantitatively complete set of RNA transcripts. In this study, RNA sequencing based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology was applied to unravel significant genes under protein hydrolysate (PH) treatment on a bioactive compound andrographolide production of Andrographis paniculata, a well-known medicinal plant for anti-inflammatory in Southeast Asian traditional medicine. Applying 2 ml/L of PH every two weeks during plant growth and development was the most effective treatment for increasing andrographolide yield to almost three times, 212.06 mg/gDW for treatment compared to 73.65 mg/gDW for the control. The 68 up-regulated and 161 down-regulated genes were identified under PH treatment using bioinformatics analysis based on criteria of absolute log2 fold-change > 1 and FDR < 0.05. These up-regulated genes related to photosynthesis, light harvesting photosystem, response to abiotic stimulus, and regulation of circadian rhythm were proposed based on functional Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis with FDR < 0.05. These findings may shed light on precision agriculture via target gene induction for improving and sustaining the andrographolide yield in Andrographis paniculata as natural plant-based medicines in the pharmaceutical industry.