Expression Profile of Genes Involved in Terpene Biosynthetic Pathway of Mentha Aquatica At Different Growth Stages

Background and aim: water mint (mentha aquatica l.), a member of the lamiaceae family, is an aromatic and medicinal plant, which produces a large amount of essential oils. the main components of essential oils of this plant are terpenes. the production of terpenes is influenced by plant ontogeny, genotype, and environmental factors. this experiment was conducted to detect the expression changes of genes related to terpene biosynthesis in water mint at different growth stages.methods: the disinfected seeds of water mint were placed in the dark and wet conditions for germination. then, the germinated seeds were transferred to plastic pots filled with perlite and maintained under greenhouse conditions. plant leaf tissues were collected at different growth stages (early and late vegetative stages of growth). total rna extraction was performed, using rnx-plus kit (cinnagen, iran) according to the manufacturer's protocol and then cdna was synthesized by reverse transcription. in this work, the relative expression of six candidate genes (1-deoxy d-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (dxs), geranyl diphosphate synthase (gpps), isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase (ippi), β-caryophyllene synthase (cps), limonene synthase (ls), and menthofuran synthase (mfs)) encoding the enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of terpenes in water mint was investigated by qrt-pcr.results: based on the gene expression assessments, the relative expression of candidate genes in the leaf tissues was altered at the different growth stages. results showed that the mrna amounts of dxs, gpps, ippi, ls, and mfs genes were enhanced with increase in age of plant. on the other hand, the transcripts level of cps gene was decreased with advance in age of plant.conclusion: based on these findings, it is concluded that the transcriptional level of genes involved in the terpene biosynthetic pathway is strongly affected by stage of plant growth. the observed alterations in the expression of genes involved in the terpene biosynthetic pathway could alter the yield and chemical composition of essential oils in plant.