Abstract
The medicinal plant, Catharanthus roseus, accumulates wide range of terpenoid indole alkaloids, which are well documented therapeutic agents. In this study, deep transcriptome sequencing of C. roseus was carried out to identify the pathways and enzymes (genes) involved in biosynthesis of these compounds. About 343 million reads were generated from different tissues (leaf, flower and root) of C. roseus using Illumina platform. Optimization of de novo assembly involving a two-step process resulted in a total of 59,220 unique transcripts with an average length of 1284 bp. Comprehensive functional annotation and gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed the representation of many genes involved in different biological processes and molecular functions. In total, 65% of C. roseus transcripts showed homology with sequences available in various public repositories, while remaining 35% unigenes may be considered as C. roseus specific. In silico analysis revealed presence of 11,620 genic simple sequence repeats (excluding mono-nucleotide repeats) and 1820 transcription factor encoding genes in C. roseus transcriptome. Expression analysis showed roots and leaves to be actively participating in bisindole alkaloid production with clear indication that enzymes involved in pathway of vindoline and vinblastine biosynthesis are restricted to aerial tissues. Such large-scale transcriptome study provides a rich source for understanding plant-specialized metabolism, and is expected to promote research towards production of plant-derived pharmaceuticals.
Highlights
Catharanthus roseus, popularly known as Madagascar periwinkle, is a medicinal plant which belongs to family Apocyanaceae
C. roseus is well known for its pharmacological importance as it produces more than 130 terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) including vinblastine and vincristine, which are widely used in anti-cancer chemotherapies [2,3]
Of the total,347 million reads generated from all the tissue samples, about 343 million reads were found to be of high quality after filtering with NGS QC Toolkit (Table S1), having average Phred quality score of at least 30 at each base position
Summary
Catharanthus roseus, popularly known as Madagascar periwinkle, is a medicinal plant which belongs to family Apocyanaceae. C. roseus is well known for its pharmacological importance as it produces more than 130 terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) including vinblastine and vincristine, which are widely used in anti-cancer chemotherapies [2,3]. Most tissues of C. roseus are known to produce alkaloids and no other single plant is known to produce such a wide spectrum of alkaloids [4]. The plant is known to treat diabetes due to hypoglycemic properties in its tissue extracts [5]. Roots of C. roseus are known to accumulate ajmalicine and serpentine which help controlling blood pressure and cardio-vascular disorders [6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
