Insights into the Differences in Polysaccharide and Alkaloid Biosynthesis in the Medicinal Orchids Dendrobium nobile and D. officinale

Both Dendrobium nobile and D. officinale are widely used medicinal plants in China and their major medicinal components are alkaloids and polysaccharides, respectively. It is still unclear why these two closely related orchids synthesize and accumulate different chemical components. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying polysaccharide and alkaloid biosynthesis in D. nobile and D. officinale through transcriptome and metabolomic analysis at different growth stages. A total of 1267 metabolites were identified in the juvenile and mature stages of the two species. D. nobile accumulated a large number of alkaloids, benzenoids/phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, and terpenoids during the transition from juvenile to mature plants. In contrast, D. officinale accumulated a small number of those metabolites and an absence of flavonoids. The correlation analysis of polysaccharide contents with the differentially expressed genes suggested that the differential expression of GH1, GH3, and GH9 might be related to the difference in polysaccharide contents between the two Dendrobium species. Meanwhile, the difference in the biosynthesis of dendrobine, the main component of alkaloids in D. nobile, was involved in the differential expression of HMGCR, DXR, DXS, ISPH and eight CYP450s. These findings provided new insights into understanding the biosynthetic mechanisms of the main medicinal components in Dendrobium species.