The chemical profiling of Salvia plebeia during different growth periods and the biosynthesis of its main flavonoids ingredients

Salvia plebeia (Lamiaceae) is a valuable medicinal plant widely distributed across Asia and Oceania. However, the composition accumulation patterns of its active ingredients in different organs during growth their biosynthetic mechanism remain unknown. Therefore, we conducted metabolite profiling, transcriptomic analysis, biological functional verification to explore distribution, accumulation, biosynthesis mechanisms flavonoids S. plebeia. We identified 70 metabolites including 46 flavonoids, 16 phenolic acids, seven terpenoids, one organic acid, which 21 were previously unreported . Combining metabolomic-transcriptomic analysis verification, key genes involved main ingredients, hispidulin homoplantaginin, SpPAL , SpC4H Sp4CL2 Sp4CL5 SpCHS1 SpCHI SpFNS SpF6H1 SpF6OMT1 SpF6OMT2 SpUGT1 SpUGT2 SpUGT3 Using genes, reconstructed homoplantaginin pathways Escherichia coli obtained yield 5.33 3.86 mg/L for respectively. Our findings provide insights into changes chemical components harvest stages establishes foundation identifying synthesizing components.