Figure 3.

Temporal expression profile of key enzyme genes in the saponin biosynthesis pathway.

(A) A brief view of the morphological changes in P. notoginseng as the years of growth increase during the cultivation process.

(B) Temporal expression heatmap of terpenoid biosynthetic pathway genes in P. notoginseng. Taking the leaf's heatmap as an example, the Arabic numerals in the label indicate the years of growth; for example, 2-leaf indicates that the sample is the leaf of a 2-year-old P. notoginseng plant. Based on the gene expression levels, the pattern of expression change for any one gene can be observed after the data in each column are standardized. The area marked by the red box indicates high gene expression levels. Each heatmap has its own color scale: the higher the expression, the greener the color.