Qualitative and quantitative variations in withanolides and expression of some pathway genes during different stages of morphogenesis in Withania somnifera Dunal

Guleri

Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews

et al. 2015

Withania somnifera is one of the most valued plants and is extensively used in Indian, Unani, and African systems of traditional medicine. It possess a wide array of therapeutic properties including anti-arthritic, anti-aging, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, chemoprotective, cardioprotective, and recovery from neurodegenerative disorders. With the growing realization of benefits and associated challenges in the improvement of W. somnifera, studies on exploration of genetic and chemotypic variations, identification and characterization of important genes, and understanding the secondary metabolites production and their modulation has gained significant momentum. In recent years, several in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies have facilitated the validation of therapeutic potential of the phytochemicals derived from W. somnifera and have provided necessary impetus for gaining deeper insight into the mechanistic aspects involved in the mode of action of these important pharmaceutically active constituents. The present review highlights some of the current developments and future prospects of biotechnological intervention in this important medicinal plant.

Section: Identification and Characterization Of Pathway Genesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Biotechnological interventions inWithania somnifera(L.) Dunal

Guleri

Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews

et al. 2015

“…7). Methylenecholesterol is then subjected to a series of hydroxylations, elongations, glycosylations of the carbocyclic skeleton, and further cyclization of its side chain, resulting in compounds with complex structural features [212][213][214][215][216]. According to the difference in the substituted groups of C-17 side chain, withanolides can be divided into two types; type A with a δ-lactone or δ-lactol and type B with γ-lactone or γ-lactol side chain [217].…”

Section: Withanolidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Integration of Metabolomics and Next-Generation Sequencing Data to Elucidate the Pathways of Natural Product Metabolism in Medicinal Plants

et al. 2018

Plants have always been used as medicines since ancient times to treat diseases. The knowledge around the active components of herbal preparations has remained nevertheless fragmentary: the biosynthetic pathways of many secondary metabolites of pharmacological importance have been clarified only in a few species, while the chemodiversity present in many medicinal plants has remained largely unexplored. Despite the advancements of synthetic biology for production of medicinal compounds in heterologous hosts, the native plant species are often the most reliable and economic source for their production. It thus becomes fundamental to investigate the metabolic composition of medicinal plants to characterize their natural metabolic diversity and to define the biosynthetic routes of important compounds to develop strategies to further increase their content. We present here a number of case studies for selected classes of secondary metabolites and we review their health benefits and the historical developments in their structural elucidation and characterization of biosynthetic genes. We cover the cases of benzoisoquinoline and monoterpenoid indole alkaloids, cannabinoids, caffeine, ginsenosides, withanolides, artemisinin, and taxol; we show how the "early" biochemical or the more recent integrative approaches-based on omics-analyses-have helped to elucidate their metabolic pathways and cellular compartmentation. We also summarize how the knowledge generated about their biosynthesis has been used to develop metabolic engineering strategies in heterologous and native hosts. We conclude that following the advent of novel, high-throughput and cost-effective analytical technologies, the secondary metabolism of medicinal plants can now be examined under the lens of systems biology.

“…The most important withanolides like withanone and withaferin A which are synthesized by the plant have attracted significant attention recently [10–12]. However, it is known that leaves are the major site of synthesis of withaferin-A and withanone whereas, root act as a minor site [13, 14]. Therefore, it is critical to have detailed informative data on protein composition of W .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the leaf proteome profile of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal in response to Alternaria alternata infection

Joshi

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

Withania somnifera is a high value medicinal plant which is used against large number of ailments. The medicinal properties of the plant attributes to a wide array of important secondary metabolites. The plant is predominantly infected with leaf spot pathogen Alternaria alternata, which leads to substantial biodeterioration of pharmaceutically important metabolites. To develop an effective strategy to combat this disease, proteomics based approach could be useful. Hence, in the present study, three different protein extraction methods tris-buffer based, phenol based and trichloroacetic acid-acetone (TCA-acetone) based method were comparatively evaluated for two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) analysis of W. somnifera. TCA-acetone method was found to be most effective and was further used to identify differentially expressed proteins in response to fungal infection. Thirty-eight differentially expressed proteins were identified by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF/TOF MS/MS). The known proteins were categorized into eight different groups based on their function and maximum proteins belonged to energy and metabolism, cell structure, stress and defense and RNA/DNA categories. Differential expression of some key proteins were also crosschecked at transcriptomic level by using qRT-PCR and were found to be consistent with the 2-DE data. These outcomes enable us to evaluate modifications that take place at the proteomic level during a compatible host pathogen interaction. The comparative proteome analysis conducted in this paper revealed the involvement of many key proteins in the process of pathogenesis and further investigation of these identified proteins could assist in the discovery of new strategies for the development of pathogen resistance in the plant.