Analysis of monoterpene biosynthesis and functional TPSs of <i>Perilla frutescens</i> based on transcriptome and metabolome

Perilla is a characteristic medicinal and edible plant. According to the different main monoterpenes in Perilla leaves, Perilla can be divided into many chemical types. In this study, four Perilla cultivars of different chemical types, included perillaldehyde (PA), perillaketone (PK), perillene (PL) and piperitenone (PT) were selected for metabolome and transcriptome analysis. Totally, 35 terpene compounds were identified and main monoterpenes were consistent with corresponding chemical types, respectively. Combined with transcriptome, a total of 5,920 differentially expressed genes were obtained among them. Totally, 69 genes refered to MVA and MEP pathways and 109 PfTPSs encoded genes were identified, which possessed partial differentially expressed in four chemical types. The core PfTPSs in co-expression analysis were functional characterization. Three PfTPSs were identified as linalool synthase and one PfTPSs were identified as geranyl synthase. This research analyzed the monoterpene biosynthesis and functional characterization of TPSs in Perilla, which can give foundation for in-depth research of Perilla chemotype metabolic mechanism.