Comprehensive Analysis of Transcriptomics and Metabolomics between the Heads and Tails of Angelica Sinensis: Genes Related to Phenylpropanoid Biosynthesis Pathway

Comprehensive analysis of transcriptomes and metabolomics results suggested that five KEGG pathways with significant differences included 57 DEGs. Especially, fourteen DEGs and six key metabolites were related to the metabolic regulation of Phenylpropanoid biosynthesis (PB) pathway. Results of RT-qPCR and targeted metabolomics indicated that higher levels of expression of crucial genes in PB pathway, such as PAL, CAD, COMT and peroxidase in the tail of AS, were positively correlated with levels of ferulic acid-related metabolites. The average content of ferulic acid in tails (569.58±162.39 nmol/g) was higher than those in the heads (168.73 ± 67.30 nmol/g) (P.