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Updated: Jan 10, 2026

Annotation of Plant Gene Function via Combined Genomics, Metabolomics and Informatics
Published on: June 17, 2012
Multi-omics analyses reveal regulatory networks underpinning metabolite biosynthesis in Nicotiana tabacum
Jiaming Li1, Qinggang Liao1, Huina Zhou2
1Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Advanced Synthetic Biology Institute at Hohhot, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
Abstract:
Tobacco is a significant industrial crop, serving as a model for plant science and a promising specie for the production of proteins and small molecules. However, system biology studies of tobacco under natural field cultivation conditions remain scarce. Here, we construct a genome-scale metabolic regulatory network through integration of dynamic transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles from field-grown tobacco leaves across two ecologically distinct regions. We map 25,984 genes and 633 metabolites into 3.17 million regulatory pairs using multi-algorithm integration. This network reveals three pivotal transcriptional hubs, including NtMYB28 (promoting hydroxycinnamic acids synthesis by modifying Nt4CL2 and NtPAL2 expression), NtERF167 (amplifying lipid synthesis via NtLACS2 activation) and NtCYC (driving aroma production through NtLOX2 induction). These transcriptional hubs achieve substantial yield improvements of target metabolites by rewiring metabolic flux. The present work provides a systems-level atlas of tobacco metabolic regulation and may help to guide metabolic engineering.
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