title: De Novo transcriptome assembly (NGS) of Curcuma longa L. rhizome reveals novel transcripts related to anticancer and antimalarial terpenoids.
abstract: Herbal remedies are increasingly being recognised in recent years as alternative medicine for a number of diseases including cancer. Curcuma longa L., commonly known as turmeric is used as a culinary spice in India and in many Asian countries has been attributed to lower incidences of gastrointestinal cancers. Curcumin, a secondary metabolite isolated from the rhizomes of this plant has been shown to have significant anticancer properties, in addition to antimalarial and antioxidant effects. We sequenced the transcriptome of the rhizome of the 3 varieties of Curcuma longa L. using Illumina reversible dye terminator sequencing followed by de novo transcriptome assembly. Multiple databases were used to obtain a comprehensive annotation and the transcripts were functionally classified using GO, KOG and PlantCyc. Special emphasis was given for annotating the secondary metabolite pathways and terpenoid biosynthesis pathways. We report for the first time, the presence of transcripts related to biosynthetic pathways of several anti-cancer compounds like taxol, curcumin, and vinblastine in addition to anti-malarial compounds like artemisinin and acridone alkaloids, emphasizing turmeric's importance as a highly potent phytochemical. Our data not only provides molecular signatures for several terpenoids but also a comprehensive molecular resource for facilitating deeper insights into the transcriptome of C. longa.
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Unit, Genotypic Technology Private Limited, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Ramasamy S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Annadurai
authors.forename: Ramprasad
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neethiraj
authors.forename: Vasanthan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jayakumar
authors.forename: Anand C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Damodaran
authors.forename: Sudha Narayana
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Mohan A V S K
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Katta
authors.forename: Sreeja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gopinathan
authors.forename: Santosh Prasad
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Sarma
authors.forename: Vanitha
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Senthilkumar
authors.forename: Vidya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Niranjan
authors.forename: Ashok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gopinath
authors.forename: Raja C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Mugasimangalam
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000494:pharmacology; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D030024:Curcuma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D027343:Rhizome / Q000737:chemistry*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013729:Terpenes / Q000494:pharmacology*; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts; D013729:Terpenes; C012596:turmeric extract