In vitro production of thiophenes using hairy root cultures of Tagetes erecta (L.)

Marigold (Tagetes spp.) is a source of thiophenes, which are a group of heterocyclic sulfurous compounds  possessing strong biocidal activity, thus making Tagetes plants very useful as natural source of agents for controlling pathogens such as nematodes, insects, fungi and bacteria. Hairy root cultures of Tagetes erecta L. were developed using Agrobacterium rhizogenes mediated transformation. The hairy root clones showed great variations in growth pattern and total thiophene content (0.31 to 0.96 mg/gfw). Four types of thiophenes that accumulated in root cultures of Tagetes were butenenylbithiophene (BBT),  hydroxybutenenylbithiophene (BBTOH), acetoxybutenenylbithiophene (BBTOAc) and α-terthienyl (α-T). Total thiophene contents in these isolated rhizoclones were found tobe four fold higher than that of wild type hairy root cultures. The developed method of producing hairy cultures of T. erecta can be used for producing thiophenes at large scale.Key words: Agrobacterium rhizogenes, marigold, rhizoclones, biocidal

Endophytic Consortium With Diverse Gene-Regulating Capabilities of Benzylisoquinoline Alkaloids Biosynthetic Pathway Can Enhance Endogenous Morphine Biosynthesis in Papaver somniferum

Secondary metabolite biosynthesis in medicinal plants is multi-step cascade known to be modulated by associated endophytes. While a single endophyte is not able to upregulate all biosynthetic steps, limiting maximum yield achievement. Therefore to compliment the deficient characteristics in an endophyte we tried consortium of endophytes to achieve maximum yield. Here, efforts were made to maximize the in planta morphine yield, using consortium of two endophytes; SM1B (Acinetobacter sp.) upregulating most of the genes of morphine biosynthesis except T6ODM and CODM, and SM3B (Marmoricola sp.) upregulating T6ODM and CODM in alkaloid-less Papaver somniferum cv. Sujata. Consortium-inoculation significantly increased morphine and thebaine content, and also increased the photosynthetic efficiency of poppy plants resulted in increased biomass, capsule weight, and seed yields compared to single-inoculation. The increment in morphine content was due to the modulation of metabolic-flow of key intermediates including reticuline and thebaine, via upregulating pertinent biosynthetic genes and enhanced expression of COR, key gene for morphine biosynthesis. This is the first report demonstrating the endophytic-consortium complimenting the functional deficiency of one endophyte by another for upregulating multiple genes of a metabolic pathway similar to transgenics (overexpressing multiple genes) for obtaining enhanced yield of pharmaceutically important metabolites

Biotransformation of artemisinin mediated through fungal strains for obtaining derivatives with novel activities

Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone, is the active antimalarial constituent of Artemisia annua. Several fungal strains Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger and Picchia pastoris were used to biotransform artemisinin. Among these strains, A. flavus was the only microorganism capable of transforming artemisinin to deoxyartemisinin in higher yields than the previous reports. The structure of deoxyartemisinin was elucidated by spectroscopy. Deoxyartemisinin showed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis and S. mutans at a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 1 mg/mL compared to artemisinin whose MIC was >2 mg/mL

Berberine, a popular dietary supplement for human and animal health: Quantitative research literature analysis a review

Berberine is an alkaloid with a wide range of reported beneficial health effects. The current work provides an extensive literature analysis on berberine. Bibliometric data were identified by means of the search string TOPIC=(berberin* OR umbellatine*), which yielded 5,547 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection electronic database. The VOSviewer software generated bubble maps to visualize semantic terms with citation results. The ratio of original articles to reviews was 13.6:1. The literature has been growing more quickly since the 2010s. Major contributing countries were China, the United States, India, Japan, and South Korea. Most of the publications appeared in journals specialized in pharmacology pharmacy, biochemistry molecular biology, chemistry, and plant science. Some of the frequently mentioned chemicals/chemical classes were alkaloid, palmatine, jatrorrhizine, coptisine, isoquinoline, and sanguinarine. The prevalent medical conditions under investigation included Alzheimers disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.Acknowledge the support by the Polish KNOW (LeadingNational Research Centre) Scientific Consortium “Healthy Animal-Safe Food,” decision of Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 05-1/KNOW2/2015 and the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (Homing/2017-4/41). Antoni Sureda has been supported by the Institute of Health Carlos III (Project CIBEROBN CB12/03/30038). Joanna Feder-Kubis was financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for the Faculty of Chemistry of Wrocław University of Science and Technology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genetic variability, associations, and path analysis of chemical and morphological traits in Indian ginseng [Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal] for selection of higher yielding genotypes

Background: The study was carried out to assess the genetic variability present in ashwagandha and to examine the nature of associations of various traits to the root yield of the plant. Methods: Fifty-three diverse genetic stocks of ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) were evaluated for 14 quantitative characteristics. Analysis of variance, correlation, and path coefficient analysis were performed using the mean data of 2 years. Results: Analysis of variance revealed that the genotypes differed significantly for all characteristics studied. High heritability in conjunction with high genetic advance was observed for fresh root weight, 12 deoxywithastramonolide in roots, and plant height, which indicated that selection could be effective for these traits. Dry root weight has a tight linkage with plant height and fresh root weight. Further, in path coefficient analysis, fresh root weight, total alkaloid (%) in leaves, and 12 deoxywithastramonolide (%) in roots had the highest positive direct effect on dry root weight. Conclusion: Therefore, these characteristics can be exploited to improve dry root weight in ashwagandha genotypes and there is also scope for the selection of promising and specific chemotypes (based on the alkaloid content) from the present germplasm. Keywords: ashwagandha, direct effect, genetic advance, heritability, path coefficien

Flavone Glycoside Based Validated RP-LC Method for Quality Evaluation of Prishniparni (Uraria picta)

An LC method is developed for the quantitation of rhoifolin in Uraria picta, a plant of high usage frequency in all Asian traditional systems of medicine. An isocratic RP-LC method using C18 column, UV detection 265 nm and specificity with PDA and MS is speeding up, reliable and comprehensive analysis of rhoifolin in U. picta. Good linearity was obtained in the working range (0.02–0.10 mg mL-1), with correlation coefficients >0.99. LOD and LOQ were 2.33 and 7.69 ng, respectively. The method was validated following international guidelines. The described method can be utilized for assays and stability tests of U. picta extracts as well as Ayurvedic drugs based on Prishniparni

Image_1_Maximizing genetic gain through unlocking genetic variation in different ecotypes of kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Nee).jpg

Andrographis paniculata, commonly known as kalmegh is among the most popular medicinal herbs in Southeast Asia. It is widely cultivated for medicinal purposes. The bioactive molecule, Andrographolide accumulated in herb leaves has immense therapeutic and economic potential. However, comprehensive information regarding genetic diversity is very limited in this species. The present study assessed genetic diversity between and within the six populations (ecotypes) of twenty-four kalmegh accessions using multiple datasets (agro-morphological traits, phytochemical traits, and genic markers). This is the established report where EST-SSR (Expressed sequence tags-Simple Sequence Repeat) markers have been used to unlock genetic variation in kalmegh. Here, we identified and developed ninety-one metabolic pathway-specific EST-SSR markers. Finally, 32 random EST-SSR primer pairs were selected for genetic diversity assessment. Multivariate analysis to unveil the agro-morphological, phytochemical and genotypic variability was helpful in discriminating various germplasms studied in the present study. Among all the morphological discriptors used in present study, days to fifty percent flowering and dry herb yield were found as potential selection index for AP genetic improvement. Hierarchical cluster analysis built with agro-morphological data identified three major groups. However, corresponding analysis with phytochemical and molecular data generated two clear-cut groups among the studied individuals. Moreover, the grouping of individuals into different clusters using multiple datasets was geographically independent, and also showed inconsistency in grouping among agromorphological, phytochemical and molecular dataset based clusters. However, joint analysis using agro-morphological, phytochemical and genotypic information generated two genetic groups, which could be a valuable resource for identifying complementary crossing panels in the kalmegh breeding program. The accessions AP7, AP13, AP5, AP3 belong to cluster I and accessions AP17, AP18 belong to cluster II could be utilized as potential donors for high dry herb yield and andrographolide content, respectively in different selective breeding programs of AP. Thus, our results provided useful information about the overall genetic diversity and variation in economic traits useful for initiating selective breeding programs for contrasting traits of interest and maximizing genetic gain in kalmegh.</p

Table_3_Maximizing genetic gain through unlocking genetic variation in different ecotypes of kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Nee).docx

Andrographis paniculata, commonly known as kalmegh is among the most popular medicinal herbs in Southeast Asia. It is widely cultivated for medicinal purposes. The bioactive molecule, Andrographolide accumulated in herb leaves has immense therapeutic and economic potential. However, comprehensive information regarding genetic diversity is very limited in this species. The present study assessed genetic diversity between and within the six populations (ecotypes) of twenty-four kalmegh accessions using multiple datasets (agro-morphological traits, phytochemical traits, and genic markers). This is the established report where EST-SSR (Expressed sequence tags-Simple Sequence Repeat) markers have been used to unlock genetic variation in kalmegh. Here, we identified and developed ninety-one metabolic pathway-specific EST-SSR markers. Finally, 32 random EST-SSR primer pairs were selected for genetic diversity assessment. Multivariate analysis to unveil the agro-morphological, phytochemical and genotypic variability was helpful in discriminating various germplasms studied in the present study. Among all the morphological discriptors used in present study, days to fifty percent flowering and dry herb yield were found as potential selection index for AP genetic improvement. Hierarchical cluster analysis built with agro-morphological data identified three major groups. However, corresponding analysis with phytochemical and molecular data generated two clear-cut groups among the studied individuals. Moreover, the grouping of individuals into different clusters using multiple datasets was geographically independent, and also showed inconsistency in grouping among agromorphological, phytochemical and molecular dataset based clusters. However, joint analysis using agro-morphological, phytochemical and genotypic information generated two genetic groups, which could be a valuable resource for identifying complementary crossing panels in the kalmegh breeding program. The accessions AP7, AP13, AP5, AP3 belong to cluster I and accessions AP17, AP18 belong to cluster II could be utilized as potential donors for high dry herb yield and andrographolide content, respectively in different selective breeding programs of AP. Thus, our results provided useful information about the overall genetic diversity and variation in economic traits useful for initiating selective breeding programs for contrasting traits of interest and maximizing genetic gain in kalmegh.</p