Integrated Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analyses Uncover Regulatory Networks and Metabolite Dynamics in Cibotium barometz Leaf Development

Abstract Leaf development, a critical stage in the plant life cycle, involves coordinated physiological and morphogenetic processes marked by dynamic shifts in molecular mechanisms and metabolite profiles. The Cibotium barometz (L.) J. Sm., a traditional medicinal plant, contain bioactive compounds known for alleviating rheumatism, polyuria, lumbago, and other disorders. The dynamic changes in overall molecular mechanisms and metabolite accumulation during C. barometz leaf growth and development remain unknown. In this study, next-generation sequencing was employed to generate the C. barometz leaf transcriptome at two developmental stages, enabling an assessment of gene expression changes, particularly in transcription factors regulating leaf formation and metabolite accumulation. De novo assembly of high-quality reads yielded 115 749 unigenes with an average length of 1281 bp. FPKM-based analysis revealed significant transcriptome changes during leaf development. Additionally, non-targeted metabolomics identified 1498 analytes, with lipids comprising the largest proportion of metabolites in both C. barometz samples. This study provides dynamic models of transcriptome and metabolite changes, uncovering key regulatory networks involved in C. barometz leaf growth and development, and enhances the annotation of the C. barometz genome, laying the groundwork for future research.