LAUSR

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch) possesses a substantial share of the global markets for its unique sweet flavor and diverse pharmacological compounds. Cultivated licorice is widely distributed in northwest regions of China, covered with land with a broad range of salinities. A preliminary study indicated that suitable salt stress significantly increased the content of bioactive constituents in licorice. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the influence of salinity on the accumulation of these constituents remain unclear, which hinders quality breeding of cultivated licorice. In our study, flavonoid-related structural genes were obtained, and most of them, such as phenylalanine ammonia-lyases (PALs), cinnamate 4-hydroxylases (C4Hs), 4-coumarate: CoA ligases (4CLs), chalcone synthases (CHSs), chalcone-flavanone isomerase (CHI), and flavonol synthase (FLS), showed high levels after salt treatment. In the biosynthesis of glycyrrhizin, three key enzymes (bAS, CYP88D6 and CYP72A154) were identified as differentially expressed proteins and remarkably upregulated in the salt-stressed group. Combining these results with the contents of fourteen bioactive constituents, we also found that the expression patterns of those structural proteins were logically consistent with changes in bioactive constituent profiles. Thus we believe that suitable salt stress increased the accumulation of bioactive constituents in licorice by upregulating proteins involved in the related biosynthesis pathways. This work provided valuable proteomic information for unraveling the molecular mechanism of flavonoid and glycyrrhizin metabolism and offered fundamental resources for quality breeding in licorice.