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Two haplotype-resolved genomes reported in this study provide insights into genetic differences between homologous chromosomes. Based on metabolomics and transcriptomics, a gene-metabolite network was constructed and provided a resource for the analysis of key metabolic pathways in A. catechu. This work lays a foundation for further research and the utilization of important tropical medicinal resources.
Gene and accession number
The whole genome sequence data reported in this paper have been deposited in the Genome Warehouse in National Genomics Data Center under BioProject accession number PRJCA033974. The RNA-seq presented in this study are available in NCBI under the BioProject accession PRJNA929020. The raw metabolomics data are available via http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/MTBLS6967.
Introduction
The Arecaceae family, also known as Palmaceae, contains a wide range of plants recognized for their economic, ornamental, and medicinal value, such as Trachycarpus nana, Cocos nucifera, and Elaeis guineensis. Areca catechu (2n = 32) belongs to the Arecacae family and is mainly distributed in tropical regions, including eastern Africa, southern and southeastern Asia, and some regions in the Pacific Ocean (Peng et al. 2015; Yang et al. 2021b). In 2022, A. catechu occupied an area of approximately 1.21 million hectares globally, with a total yield of 2.54 million tons (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/ Accessed February 2024). Areca nuts are used for chewing and traditional herbal medicine, practices that date back to the Han Dynasty of China, and A. catechu is distinguished from other palm plants by its high content of arecoline in its nuts.
Fundamental chemical modifications of metabolites can affect the capacity of plants to adapt to environmental change and increase metabolite diversity and bioactivity in plant, which contain glycosyl, carboxyl, methyl, and hydroxyl functional groups (Jones et al. 2001; Wang et al. 2019). As a traditional Chinese medicine, areca nuts are enriched in various active ingredients such as alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenols, and triterpenes (Yang et al. 2021a). The major bioactive compounds in areca nuts are the pyridine alkaloids (arecoline, arecaidine, guvacoline, and guvacine), which often bind with tannic acid and account for 90% of areca nuts’ total alkaloid content (Cao et al. 2020). Among them, clinical uses of arecoline include treating glaucoma, tapeworm infections, and joint inflammation and it also provides significant benefits to the nervous and cardiovascular systems (Chiu et...