Transcriptomic analysis reveals responses to Cycloastragenol in Arabidopsis thaliana

Cycloastragenol (CAG), a molecule isolated from ‘Astragalus membranaceus’, stimulates the telomerase activity and cell proliferation significantly. It has been proven that CAG has the ability to prevent some diseases in humans. In this study, we aimed to figure out the CAG effects on the different signaling mechanisms in plants and to broadly analyze the genome-wide transcriptional responses in order to demonstrate CAG as a new key molecule that can potentially help plants to overcome different environmental stresses. RNA-seq strategy was employed to assess the transcriptional profiles in A. thaliana calli. Our work primarily focused on an overall study on the transcriptomic responses of A. thaliana to CAG. A total of 22593 unigenes have been detected, among which 1045 unigenes associated with 213 GO terms were differentially expressed and were assigned to 118 KEGG pathways. The up-regulated genes are principally involved in cellular and metabolic processes in addition to the response to a stimulus. The data analysis revealed genes associated with defense signaling pathways such as cytochrome P450s transporter, antioxidant system genes, and stress-responsive protein families were significantly upregulated. The obtained results can potentially help in better understanding biotic and/or abiotic tolerance mechanisms in response to CAG.