BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Bioinformatics
This article is part of the Research TopicBioinformatic for Identifying Pharmacological Targets of Medicinal Plants: A New Frontier in Plant Sciences and PharmacologyView all 5 articles
Transcriptomic and metabolomic insights into the antimicrobial mechanisms of Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack leaf extract
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 2First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- 3Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China
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A small tropical evergreen shrub, Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack (M. paniculata), has an inhibition effect against a range of pathogens. However, the molecular basis for the antimicrobial effect is largely unknown. The study investigated how it inhibits bacterial growth. Primarily, 5 different extracts showed variable antimicrobial potentials on 4 different bacterial pathogens. The acetone extract of M. paniculata leaf (AEML) inhibited the growth of all pathogens with MIC values ranging from 200 to 400 μg/mL. Further assays on pathogenic Escherichia coli showed dose-dependent effects due to disruption of cell wall and membrane, as indicated by increased secretion of intracellular components and propidium iodide staining. Transcriptomic study demonstrated that AEML regulated bacterial gene expression in (357 upregulated and 280 downregulated), with the majority of differently expressed genes enriched in oxidative phosphorylation and citrate cycle. In particular, downregulated metabolisms of thiamine and biotin that are cofactors playing a fundamental role in energy metabolism. At last, untargeted metabolomic analysis identified more than 1500 metabolites in AEML by LC-MS/MS, including various compounds contributing to the antimicrobial effect, like phenols and flavonoids. Of note, more than 30 different antibiotics has been detected. Taken together, M. paniculata produces versatile antimicrobial agents that have profound effects on bacterial physiology. All these results provided novel molecular insights into the antimicrobial effects of M. paniculata.
Keywords: Murraya paniculata, Antimicrobial activity, Transcriptomics, Metabolomics, antibiotics
Received: 02 Oct 2025; Accepted: 18 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Zhang, Nie, Shi, Liu, Zhang and Sun. 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:
Rongrong Zhang, zrr586@gzucm.edu.cn
Zhongke Sun, sunzh@daad-alumni.de
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