ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Development and EvoDevo
Isofraxidin Biosynthesis in Chloranthus: Genomic Insights into Metabolic Evolution of an early Angiosperm Phytoalexin
Provisionally accepted
Ying-Ying Liu
Lu ChenPing Li
Shugen WeiYuan HuangMengjin TanYing WeiFeng Peng
Yu Pan
Sha Song
Lingyun Wan
Zhigang Yan*Lingjian Gui*- Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, Nanning, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
As an early-diverging angiosperm lineage, Chloranthaceae produces specialized coumarins with documented antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities, which contribute to its ecological success. Isofraxidin, the most representative simple coumarin in this clade, exhibits significant pharmaceutical potential. However, its biosynthetic basis remains uncharacterized. Here, we assembled a high-quality triploid genome of Chloranthus spicatus (8.57 Gb, contig N50=8.76 Mb) to explore the evolution of defensive metabolism. Genomic analysis revealed an ancient whole-genome duplication event and expanded gene families associated with pathogen resistance. Metabolomic analysis identified at least 49 coumarin compounds in Chloranthus plants, significantly exceeding previous records. Integrated omics revealed 267 candidate biosynthetic genes across 9 enzyme families governing isofraxidin biosynthesis. Building on the upstream synthesis of the phenylpropanoid backbone, this study identifies amplified coumarin synthase (COSY) genes linked to umbelliferone accumulation, and specific CYP450s and O-methyltransferases catalyzing final structural modifications. This work elucidates the evolution of chemical defenses in early angiosperms and enables the engineering of plant-derived antimicrobials.
Keywords: Chloranthus, Genome, Metabolome-transcriptome integration, Coumarin biosynthesis, Isofraxidin
Received: 28 Aug 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Chen, Li, Wei, Huang, Tan, Wei, Peng, Pan, Song, Wan, Yan and Gui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhigang Yan
Lingjian Gui
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.