Abstract
Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi. Its formal inclusion in China’s “medicine and food homology” catalog has intensified demand for cultivated tubers combining high yield with consistent bioactive quality. Here, we tested whether Armillaria mellea strains steer host carbon allocation between biomass accumulation and phenolic glycoside biosynthesis. Using a standardized EPS symbiotic cultivation system (AM1, AM2, AM3; n = 3 biological replicates per strain), we integrated agronomic traits with widely targeted metabolomics and RNA-seq transcriptomics, including weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). AM3 produced the highest tuber yield and higher primary carbon status (PCAI), but lower gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosides and lower allocation efficiency (BER), whereas AM1 showed a quality-dominant profile with significantly higher BER. WGCNA highlighted an AM3-associated module enriched in starch-biosynthetic genes, and PCAI was strongly negatively correlated with the weighted Parishin-Gastrodin Index (wPGI) across samples (n = 9), consistent with a carbohydrate-storage versus phenolic-glycoside trade-off. These results indicate that fungal strain identity functions as an external regulator of source–sink dynamics in G. elata, supporting “precision symbiosis” for food-grade versus medicinal-grade production.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Strain AM3 produced the highest tuber yield of Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elata
Gastrodia elatae1 - Material
- AM3e0
- Organ / stage
- tubere0
- Treatment
- AM3e0
- Interactor
- Armillaria fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- tuber yielde0
- Direction
- higheste0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AM3 produced the highest tuber yield and higher primary carbon status (PCAI), but lower gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosides and lower allocation efficiency (BER), whereas AM1 showed a quality-dominant profile with significantly higher BER”
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
Claim · model-written summary
Strain AM3 had higher primary carbon status (PCAI) in Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Material
- AM3e0
- Treatment
- AM3e0
- Interactor
- Armillaria fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- primary carbon status (PCAI)e0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AM3 produced the highest tuber yield and higher primary carbon status (PCAI), but lower gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosides and lower allocation efficiency (BER), whereas AM1 showed a quality-dominant profile with significantly higher BER”
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
Claim · model-written summary
Strain AM3 gave lower gastrodin and parishin-type phenolic glycosides in Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Material
- AM3e0
- Treatment
- AM3e0
- Interactor
- Armillaria fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosidese0
- Direction
- lowere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AM3 produced the highest tuber yield and higher primary carbon status (PCAI), but lower gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosides and lower allocation efficiency (BER), whereas AM1 showed a quality-dominant profile with significantly higher BER”
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
Claim · model-written summary
Strain AM3 gave lower allocation efficiency (BER) in Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Material
- AM3e0
- Treatment
- AM3e0
- Interactor
- Armillaria fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- allocation efficiency (BER)e0
- Direction
- lowere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AM3 produced the highest tuber yield and higher primary carbon status (PCAI), but lower gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosides and lower allocation efficiency (BER), whereas AM1 showed a quality-dominant profile with significantly higher BER”
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
Claim · model-written summary
Strain AM1 gave significantly higher allocation efficiency (BER) in Gastrodia elata, with a quality-dominant profile.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Material
- AM1e0
- Treatment
- AM1e0
- Interactor
- Armillaria fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- BERe0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AM3 produced the highest tuber yield and higher primary carbon status (PCAI), but lower gastrodin/parishin-type phenolic glycosides and lower allocation efficiency (BER), whereas AM1 showed a quality-dominant profile with significantly higher BER”
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
Claim · model-written summary
A WGCNA module associated with AM3 was enriched in starch-biosynthetic genes in Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Material
- AM3e2
- Gene
- starch-biosynthetic genese2
- Outcome
- AM3-associated modulee2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
e2“WGCNA highlighted an AM3-associated module enriched in starch-biosynthetic genes”
Claim · model-written summary
Primary carbon status (PCAI) was strongly negatively correlated with the weighted Parishin-Gastrodin Index across samples.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Compound
- PCAIe3
- Outcome
- weighted Parishin-Gastrodin Index (wPGI)e3
- Direction
- strongly negatively correlatede3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
e3“PCAI was strongly negatively correlated with the weighted Parishin-Gastrodin Index (wPGI) across samples (n = 9)”
Claim · model-written summary
Fungal strain identity regulates source–sink dynamics in Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Treatment
- fungal strain identitye4
- Outcome
- source–sink dynamicse4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
e4“fungal strain identity functions as an external regulator of source–sink dynamics in G. elata”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend precision symbiosis for food-grade versus medicinal-grade production of Gastrodia elata.
- Taxon
- Gastrodia elataGastrodia elatae1
- Outcome
- food-grade versus medicinal-grade productione5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Gastrodia elata is a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid whose tuber development depends on carbon delivered by Armillaria fungi”
e5“supporting “precision symbiosis” for food-grade versus medicinal-grade production”