Coriandrum sativum (Coriander) or Chinese parsley is a culinary herb with multiple medicinal effects, which is widely used in cooking and traditional medicine.  It is enriched with essential oils and anti-oxidant compounds with unknown significance.  To explore the untapped reservoir of Coriander, we studied the transcriptome and metabolic profiles from three developmental stages.  Here, we identified 10 tyrosine metabolic pathway-related genes (TMPRGs), six porphyrins and chlorophyll metabolic pathway-related genes (PCMPRGs), and five Vitamin E metabolic pathway-related genes (VEMPRGs).  These genes were associated with the early development of Coriander.  Our analysis suggests that these pathways are involved in the production of critical phenolic metabolites.  Furthermore, we constructed the interaction network between these pathway-related genes and transcription factors (TFs), which supported the regulatory pathways for phenolic metabolites.  Interestingly, we identified several nutritional or medicinally relevant metabolites, including 59 phenols, two polyamines, 12 alkaloids, and one terpenoid.  The higher concentrations of metabolites were from caffeic acid, agmatine, and its derivatives.  We found higher levels of caffeic acid and agmatine at 30 days compared to 60 or 90 days.  This study provides evidence to stimulate further investigation of the role of these metabolites in medicinal and nutritional research. 

Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are a very complex protein superfamily that increase insect temperature tolerance.  In order to deeply understand the function and role of sHSPs in Chilo suppressalis (Walker), this study isolated and identified two CsHSP genes lacking introns from C. suppressalis, Cshsp23.9 and Cshsp27.3.  The cDNA full-length of Cshsp23.9 and Cshsp27.3 were 909 and 1 036 bp encoding 220 and 242 amino acids, respectively.  Alignment with homologs and phylogenetic analysis indicated Cshsp23.9 and Cshsp27.3 were two new types of Cshsps in C. suppressalis.  Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) revealed that Cshsp23.9 had the highest relative expression in hindgut compared with other tissues (head, epidermis, foregut, midgut, fat body, Malpighian tubules, and hemocytes), while Cshsp27.3 expressed the highest in fat body content.  When exposed to thermal stress from –11 to 43°C for 2 h, two genes showed different expression patterns.  Cshsp23.9 did not respond to low temperature, but could be up-regulated by high temperature and the highest expression temperature was at 36°C.  Cshsp27.3 could only be induced by mild temperature, with the highest expression at 15 and 30°C.  In conclusion, Cshsp23.9 and Cshsp27.3 existed in different tissues/organs of C. suppressalis, and played different important roles in C. suppressalis to resist temperature stress and regulate physiological activities.