Medicinal Plant Research 2025, Vol.15, No.3, 142-150 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/mpr 142 Research Article Open Access Pan-Genome Analysis of Astragalus membranaceus Genetic Basis of Trait Diversity Zonghui Liu 1, Minghui Huang 2 1 Tropical Medicinal Plant Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China 2 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding author: minghui.huang@cuixi.org Medicinal Plant Research, 2025, Vol.15, No.3 doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0015 Received: 04 May, 2025 Accepted: 10 Jun., 2025 Published: 26 Jun., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Liu and Huang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Liu Z.H., and Huang M.H., 2025, Pan-genome analysis of Astragalus membranaceus genetic basis of trait diversity, Medicinal Plant Research, 15(3): 142-150 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0015) Abstract Astragalus spp., as a valuable traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) herb, possesses excellent values in utilization due to its rich bioactive ingredients and strong pharmacological activities. Up to now, the genetic basis of the complex germplasm resources and outstanding trait diversity of Astragalus still needs to be comprehensively elucidated. With the accelerated advancement of genomics and pangenomics technologies, it has created new pathways to investigate the molecular mechanisms of trait diversity in medicinal plants over the past few years. This review outlines the advances of Astragalus genomic studies, such as genome sequencing and annotation and gene and metabolic pathway-associated genes with medicinal compounds, and discusses the theory and methods of pangenomics, with a specific emphasis on recent findings in unveiling gene structural variations, compound-related gene diversity, and the genetic basis of stress resistance in Astragalus. Furthermore, this study highlights the genetic determination of diversity of traits, such as the role of gene loss, copy number variation, SNPs, and structural variations in medicinal properties, and integrative analyses between phenotypic diversity and metabolomics and transcriptomics. The potential for applications of Astragalus pangenomics is also touched upon, including the identification of elite germplasm, improvement of medicinal quality, improvement of resistance to stresses, and the building of precision TCM. In addition, interdisciplinary integration-e.g., combination of multi-omics, systems biology, network pharmacology, big data, and artificial intelligence-unlocks new ways to explore the genetic variability of Astragalus. This study emphasizes that the study on the pangenome of Astragalus is of great significance not only for interpreting the genetic basis of trait variability but also for supporting medicinal plant breeding and TCM modernization. Keywords Astragalus; Pangenome; Trait diversity; Medicinal quality; Genetic basis 1 Introduction Astragalus membranaceus, or Huangqi, is one of the most prized traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) plants that are widely utilized across Asia for more than a thousand years for the purpose of immune enhancement, replenishment of vital energy, and promotion of longevity. Its root accumulates a complex mixture of bioactive molecules such as polysaccharides, flavonoids, and saponins that attribute its pharmacological effects including immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular protective activities. A. membranaceus is also of considerable economic significance as an expensive herbal product in global TCM and nutraceutical trade. As enhanced global interest in TCM grows, Astragalus production and genetic improvement become top agendas in agriculture and pharmaceutical use (Ren et al., 2023). Though of medicinal and economic importance, Astragalus is of high germplasm complexity and trait variability, ranging from variation in ecological fitness and stress resistance to metabolite profile differences. Conventional research has mainly focused on phytochemical characterization, screening for pharmacological activity, and cultivation. However, the genetic basis for such biochemical and phenotypic variability has not been well comprehended. Present genomic studies are also limited in scope and aimed at a few reference genomes or transcriptomes which are insufficient to reflect the entire scope of genetic variation among various populations of Astragalus (Salehi et al., 2020). Lack of such a broad variety of genomic resources limits identification of key functional genes, revealing molecular mechanisms that regulate medicinal properties and enhancing genetic diversity in breeding schemes (Salehi et al., 2020).
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