Bioinformatics analysis to identify possible mechanisms of action of curcumin against tea geometrid

Abstract

Curcumin, a bright yellow chemical produced from curcuma longa root, is an effective insecticide, but how it works against pests such as tea geometrid (E. obliqua) is unclear.Here possible protein targets of curcumin were identified in the PubChem database, and possible targets in tea geometrid were identified using RNA sequencing; then, both sets of candidate targets were subjected to Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. The results predict that curcumin may affect several signalling proteins in tea geometrid, including TOP2B, TP53, MDM4, YWHAB, TOP2A, MDM2 and EP300; these proteins are involved in key biological processes including the cell cycle; DNA replication, recombination and repair; cellular assembly and organization; and cell death and survival. These results illustrate the power of integrative informatics and chemical fragment analysis for focusing mechanistic studies of botanical insecticides.