Click
here to close Hello! We notice that
you are using Internet Explorer, which is not supported by Echinobase
and may cause the site to display incorrectly. We suggest using a
current version of Chrome,
FireFox,
or Safari.
Mar Drugs
2017 Nov 07;1511:. doi: 10.3390/md15110349.
Show Gene links
Show Anatomy links
Evidence for a Saponin Biosynthesis Pathway in the Body Wall of the Commercially Significant Sea Cucumber Holothuria scabra.
Mitu SA
,
Bose U
,
Suwansa-Ard S
,
Turner LH
,
Zhao M
,
Elizur A
,
Ogbourne SM
,
Shaw PN
,
Cummins SF
.
Abstract
The sea cucumber (phylum Echinodermata) body wall is the first line of defense and is well known for its production of secondary metabolites; including vitamins and triterpenoid glycoside saponins that have important ecological functions and potential benefits to human health. The genes involved in the various biosynthetic pathways are unknown. To gain insight into these pathways in an echinoderm, we performed a comparative transcriptome analysis and functional annotation of the body wall and the radial nerve of the sea cucumber Holothuria scabra; to define genes associated with body wall metabolic functioning and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. We show that genes related to signal transduction mechanisms were more highly represented in the H. scabra body wall, including genes encoding enzymes involved in energy production. Eight of the core triterpenoid biosynthesis enzymes were found, however, the identity of the saponin specific biosynthetic pathway enzymes remains unknown. We confirm the body wall release of at least three different triterpenoid saponins using solid phase extraction followed by ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry. The resource we have established will help to guide future research to explore secondary metabolite biosynthesis in the sea cucumber.
Figure 1. Overall strategy and outcome of transcriptome sequencing, data analysis and annotation of Holothuria scabra body wall (BW) and radial nerve (RN). (A) Workflow for analysis, including unigene and annotation outcome. NR, protein database; NT, nucleotide database; Swiss-Prot, curated protein sequence database; GO, gene ontology; KOG, Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups ontology. (B) Pie charts showing NR protein database matches.
Figure 2. Histograms for KOG and GO functional annotation of Holothuria scabra. (A) Histogram showing KOG functional annotation of H. scabra body wall and radial nerve genes; (B) GO term classifications for those genes represented in the KOG ‘signal transduction mechanisms’ of H. scabra body wall. Division of Molecular, Biological and Cellular categories are shown in GO.
Figure 3. Biosynthetic routes of glycolysis cycle showing genes annotated from Holothuria scabra body wall and radial nerve transcriptomes. Violet squares represent genes detected in the body wall transcriptome, while green squares represent genes detected in the radial nerve transcriptome. All energy producing cycles, including starch and sucrose metabolism, pyruvate metabolism and propanoate metabolism, pentose phosphate pathway, carbon fixation and citric cycle are marked as grey (modified from KEGG Pathway Database). Location of Acetyl-CoA is highlighted by a red box.
Figure 4. Saponin biosynthesis pathway and LC-MS identification of saponin types in Holothuria scabra. (A) Saponin biosynthesis pathway showing enzyme genes annotated from the H. scabra body wall. All genes found in H. scabra are highlighted in blue. UDPs, uridine diphosphate; CYP450 cytochrome P450; (B) LC-MS chromatograms showing saponins identified from H. scabra body wall eluate. m/z, mass to charge ratio.
Bahrami,
Discovery of novel saponins from the viscera of the sea cucumber Holothuria lessoni.
2014, Pubmed,
Echinobase
Bahrami,
Discovery of novel saponins from the viscera of the sea cucumber Holothuria lessoni.
2014,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Bordbar,
High-value components and bioactives from sea cucumbers for functional foods--a review.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Bose,
Global metabolite analysis of the land snail Theba pisana hemolymph during active and aestivated states.
2016,
Pubmed
Bose,
LC-MS-based metabolomics study of marine bacterial secondary metabolite and antibiotic production in Salinispora arenicola.
2015,
Pubmed
Bose,
Biomolecular changes that occur in the antennal gland of the giant freshwater prawn (Machrobrachium rosenbergii).
2017,
Pubmed
Bose,
Discovering the recondite secondary metabolome spectrum of Salinispora species: a study of inter-species diversity.
2014,
Pubmed
Chen,
High-throughput sequencing reveals differential expression of miRNAs in intestine from sea cucumber during aestivation.
2013,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Conesa,
A survey of best practices for RNA-seq data analysis.
2016,
Pubmed
Conesa,
Blast2GO: a universal tool for annotation, visualization and analysis in functional genomics research.
2005,
Pubmed
Dang,
Two new triterpene glycosides from the Vietnamese sea cucumber Holothuria scabra.
2007,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Du,
Transcriptome sequencing and characterization for the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka, 1867).
2012,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Elyakov,
Glycosides of marine invertebrates. IV. A comparative study of the glycosides from Cuban sublittoral holothurians.
1975,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Francis,
The biological action of saponins in animal systems: a review.
2002,
Pubmed
Han,
Two new cytotoxic triterpene glycosides from the sea cucumber Holothuria scabra.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Hu,
Eicosapentaenoic acid-enriched phosphatidylcholine isolated from Cucumaria frondosa exhibits anti-hyperglycemic effects via activating phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B signal pathway.
2014,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Janakiram,
Sea Cucumbers Metabolites as Potent Anti-Cancer Agents.
2015,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Kerr,
In vivo and in vitro biosynthesis of saponins in sea cucumbers.
1995,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Kitagawa,
Saponin and sapogenol. XIV. Antifungal glycosides from the sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus selenka. (1). Structure of stichopogenin A4, the genuine aglycone of holotoxin A.
1976,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Liu,
Argusides D and E, two new cytotoxic triterpene glycosides from the sea cucumber Bohadschia argus Jaeger.
2008,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Mohammadizadeh,
Evaluation of antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic effects of Holothuria scabra from the North Coast of the Persian Gulf.
2013,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Moses,
Metabolic and functional diversity of saponins, biosynthetic intermediates and semi-synthetic derivatives.
2014,
Pubmed
Nah,
Ginseng ginsenoside pharmacology in the nervous system: involvement in the regulation of ion channels and receptors.
2014,
Pubmed
Podolak,
Saponins as cytotoxic agents: a review.
2010,
Pubmed
Proksch,
Defensive roles for secondary metabolites from marine sponges and sponge-feeding nudibranchs.
1994,
Pubmed
San Miguel-Ruiz,
Regeneration of the radial nerve cord in the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Silchenko,
Triterpene glycosides from the sea cucumber Cladolabes schmeltzii. II. Structure and biological action of cladolosides A1-A6 .
2014,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Skene,
Saponin-adjuvanted particulate vaccines for clinical use.
2006,
Pubmed
Skropeta,
Deep-sea natural products.
2008,
Pubmed
Sun,
Large scale gene expression profiling during intestine and body wall regeneration in the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Van Dyck,
Elucidation of molecular diversity and body distribution of saponins in the sea cucumber Holothuria forskali (Echinodermata) by mass spectrometry.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Van Dyck,
The triterpene glycosides of Holothuria forskali: usefulness and efficiency as a chemical defense mechanism against predatory fish.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Vincken,
Saponins, classification and occurrence in the plant kingdom.
2007,
Pubmed
Wu,
Differentiation of dried sea cucumber products from different geographical areas by surface desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Zhang,
New cytotoxic triterpene glycoside from the East China Sea cucumber Holothuria nobilis.
2015,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Zhang,
Philinopsides E and F, two new sulfated triterpene glycosides from the sea cucumber Pentacta quadrangularis.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Zhang,
De novo assembly of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus hemocytes transcriptome to identify miRNA targets associated with skin ulceration syndrome.
2013,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Zhang,
Bioactive triterpene glycosides from the sea cucumber Holothuria fuscocinerea.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase