Genome Sequencing of Plant Varieties

Genome Sequencing of Plant Varieties

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – IISER is sequencing the genomes of medicinal plants to know how they heal.

Concept –

• For some years now, researchers have been sequencing the genomes of plant varieties to better understand their traits. According to a study, there are about 391,000 land plant and 8,000 algal species in the world. Barely a thousand have been genome-sequenced.
• Now a team at the Indian Institute of Science Engineering Research (IISER), Bhopal, has been mapping the genomes of medicinal plants found in India, such as ginger, turmeric, aloe vera and giloy.
• Plants have multiple medicinal properties because of the presence of ‘secondary metabolites’.
• Metabolites are small molecules and the intermediate products of metabolism that play important roles in living organisms.
• Plant secondary metabolites are compounds of diverse structures and serve as defence against bacteria, fungi, amoebae, plants, insects, and herbivorous animals; as agents of symbiosis between microbes and plants, nematodes, insects, and higher animals; and as pollinators.
• They are also used in the signalling pathways. Thus, metabolites are useful fuels, medicines, cosmetics, food supplement, compounds and find a range of applications in agriculture, ecology and healthcare. There have been numerous researches based on the pathways and chemical structures of metabolites.
• Understanding the genome sequence can lead to producing more of the useful metabolites. The research is significant because it helps scientists understand which genes are responsible for which metabolites.
• The unavailability of genome sequence hindered the study of the genomic basis of the medicinal properties of plants. Thus, the genome sequence of giloy could be a breakthrough as a potential future therapeutic agent for diseases like Covid.
• Giloy’s anti-microbial activity is used in skin diseases, urinary tract infection, and dental plaque, among others. It is also found to reduce the clinical symptoms in HIV-positive patients; and its antioxidant activity has anti-cancer and chemo-protective properties.
• Giloy extracts are found to be potential candidates in treating various cancers like brain tumour, breast cancer, and oral cancer, as well. The availability of giloy genome will help link its genomic and medicinal properties.
• A compound from giloy was reported to target the two proteases (enzymes that break down proteins and peptides) — Mpro and spike— of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Treatment with giloy extract modulates the various pathways of the immune system for improved immunity.

To know more about genome sequencing, please click here.