Scientific Reports ( IF 3.8 ) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 , DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-36261-7 Li He 1 , Fang Xie 1 , Gang Zhou 1 , Zhao He Chen 1 , Jing Yi Wang 1 , Cheng Gang Wang 1
Chinese cordyceps was one of most valuable traditional Chinese medicine fungi. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms related to energy supply mechanism involved in the initiation and formation of primordium in Chinese cordyceps, we performed the integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of it at pre-primordium period, primordium germination period and after-primordium period, respectively. Transcriptome analysis showed that many genes related to ‘starch and sucrose metabolism’, ‘fructose and mannose metabolism’, ‘linoleic acid metabolism’, ‘fatty acids degradation’ and ‘glycerophospholipid metabolism’ were highly up-regulated at primordium germination period. Metabolomic analysis showed many metabolites regulated by these genes in these metabolism pathways were also markedly accumulated at this period. Consequently, we inferred that carbohydrate metabolism and β-oxidation pathway of palmitic acid and linoleic acid worked cooperatively to generate enough acyl-CoA, and then entered TCA cycle to provide energy for fruiting body initiation. Overall, our finding provided important information for further exploring the energy metabolic mechanisms of realizing the industrialization of Chinese cordyceps artificial cultivation.