Metabolic and Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal the Effects of Ethephon on Taraxacum kok-saghyz Rodin

The roots of Taraxacum kok-saghyz Rodin (TKS) are well-known and valued for their rubber-producing ability. Therefore, research on the analysis and detection of metabolites from the roots of TKS have been reported in previous studies. However, all of these studies have the shortcoming of focusing on only the rubber of TKS, without profiling the other metabolites in a systematic and comprehensive way. Here, the primary and secondary metabolites from the leaves of TKS were investigated using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS, and a total of 229 metabolites were characterized. Carboxylic acid derivatives, fatty acyls, phenols, and organooxygen compounds were found to be the major metabolites of TKS. The transcriptome data indicated that ribosomal, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and linoleic acid metabolism genes were significantly differentially expressed. This study is the first to report the differences in the metabolic and transcriptome profiles of TKS leaves under exogenous ethephon spray, which improves our understanding of the main metabolites and their molecular mechanisms in TKS leaves.