Transcriptome profiling of peppermint (Mentha piperita) with improved antioxidant properties in response to salicylic acid elicitation

摘要

Peppermint (Mentha piperita) is a plant widely consumed as infusion due to its beneficial health properties that are related to its phytochemical profile, which has been shown to improve with the foliar application of salicylic acid to the plants during their cultivation. However, analysis of transcriptome changes induced by the application of salicylic acid in peppermint, have not been previously reported. In order to identify the genes involved in salicylic acid signaling, the RNA sequencing strategy was employed to evaluate the transcriptional profiles in peppermint. Results showed 178,723,476 high-quality reads, of which, 77.89% corresponded to the salicylic acid elicited peppermint, whereas the remaining 22.11% was from controls plants. We found that foliar treatment with salicylic acid in peppermint plants had an important influence in many relevant biological processes, mainly photosynthesis, light response, transport of protons and phenylpropanoid pathway. Therefore, these results might explain the improvement of the bioactive metabolites concentration and nutraceutical properties induced by salicylic acid in peppermint observed in previous studies.