The plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for
their anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-pyretic and anti-cancer
properties.
Indian scientists have deciphered the entire genetic
make-up of Tulsi, a herb widely used for therapeutic purposes. The
genome map will help in making new medicines using the plant.
A
multi-institutional team led by Sowdhamini Ramanathan from the National
Centre of Biological Science, Bengaluru revisited the age-old knowledge
of the plant and its medicinal effects in their laboratories.
The
plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for their
anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-pyretic and anti-cancer properties.
These
compounds are metabolites, compounds that are a by-product of plant
metabolism, typically used for plant self-defence. These metabolites are
very poorly understood because of lack of genomic information.
Sowdhamini
and team have produced the first draft genome of O. tenuiflorum Krishna
subtype, which is an important step in understanding and identifying
the genes responsible for production of metabolites with medicinal
properties.
“The sequence reveals the interesting
pathways used by Tulsi to make ursolic acid, a medically important
compound. If one could now use modern synthetic biology techniques to
synthesise ursolic acid, it would be of great benefit,” said S.
Ramaswamy, one of the researchers.
“This is the first report of draft genome sequencing of a plant species from NCBS and we hope to do more,” added Sowdhamini.
