Open Access

ARTICLE

Co-Analysis of Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Reveals Key Pathways and Genes Associated with Pigment and Flavonoid Regulation in Mint

Xiangdong Wang¹, Hailong An², Yanzhi Ma^3,*, Hong Chen^3,4, Qi Sun³, Shaoying Ke^5,*

1 School of Physical Science and Technology, Tangshan Normal University, Tangshan, China
2 Department of Resource Management, Tangshan Normal University, Tangshan, China
3 Department of Life Sciences, Tangshan Normal University, Tangshan, China
4 College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
5 College of Life Sciences, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China

* Corresponding Authors: Yanzhi Ma. Email: ; Shaoying Ke. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Medicinal Plants: Phytochemical and Pharmacological Research)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2026, 95(8), 16 https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.083016

Received 27 March 2026; Accepted 30 July 2026; Issue published 28 August 2026

Abstract

Mint is notably rich in phenolic acids, flavonoids, antioxidants and other bioactive components, and is widely used as food, medicine, spices, and flavoring agents. Thus, metabolite composition serves as a critical indicator for assessing mint quality. In this study, two mint genotypes of Mentha canadensis L., were sampled, namely purple mint and green mint. The two genotypes are distinguished by stem color: the purple mint exhibits purple stems, whereas the green mint has green stems. The purple mint exhibited significantly higher anthocyanin and total flavone contents than green mint. Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses were performed to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms underlying pigment and flavonoid accumulation in mint stems. High-throughput RNA-Seq yielded 167,901 unigenes, of which 34,608 genes were differentially expressed. These differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly involved in the lignin metabolic process and flavonoid biosynthetic process. A total of 143 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) were enriched in isoflavonoid, flavonoid biosynthesis, flavone and flavonol biosynthesis, and anthocyanin biosynthesis pathways. Co-analysis of DEGs and DEMs revealed that the flavone and flavonol biosynthesis pathway (ko00944) contained the most DEMs, followed by the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway (ko00941) and the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway (ko00942). Furthermore, nine key genes and metabolites were identified using the O2PLS model. These findings provide a theoretical basis for understanding the key pathways and genes involved in pigment and flavonoid regulation in mint stems.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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