title: Unravelling the genome of Holy basil: an "incomparable" "elixir of life" of traditional Indian medicine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ocimum sanctum L. (O. tenuiflorum) family-Lamiaceae is an important component of Indian tradition of medicine as well as culture around the world, and hence is known as "Holy basil" in India. This plant is mentioned in the ancient texts of Ayurveda as an "elixir of life" (life saving) herb and worshipped for over 3000 years due to its healing properties. Although used in various ailments, validation of molecules for differential activities is yet to be fully analyzed, as about 80 % of the patents on this plant are on extracts or the plant parts, and mainly focussed on essential oil components. With a view to understand the full metabolic potential of this plant whole nuclear and chloroplast genomes were sequenced for the first time combining the sequence data from 4 libraries and three NGS platforms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The saturated draft assembly of the genome was about 386 Mb, along with the plastid genome of 142,245 bp, turning out to be the smallest in Lamiaceae. In addition to SSR markers, 136 proteins were identified as homologous to five important plant genomes. Pathway analysis indicated an abundance of phenylpropanoids in O. sanctum. Phylogenetic analysis for chloroplast proteome placed Salvia miltiorrhiza as the nearest neighbor. Comparison of the chemical compounds and genes availability in O. sanctum and S. miltiorrhiza indicated the potential for the discovery of new active molecules.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The genome sequence and annotation of O. sanctum provides new insights into the function of genes and the medicinal nature of the metabolites synthesized in this plant. This information is highly beneficial for mining biosynthetic pathways for important metabolites in related species.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, U.P., India. shubhra.rastogi81@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shubhra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rastogi
authors.affiliation: Microbial Technology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, Uttar Pradesh, India. a.kalra@cimap.res.in.
authors.forename: Alok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalra
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, U.P., India. v.gupta@cimap.res.in.
authors.forename: Vikrant
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Metabolic and Structural Biology Department, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, U.P., India. f.khan@cimap.res.in.
authors.forename: Feroz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Genetics and Plant Breeding Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, U.P., India. rk.lal@cimap.res.in.
authors.forename: Raj Kishori
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Lal
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, U.P., India. tripathianil@rediffmail.com.
authors.forename: Anil Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Unit, Genotypic Technology Private Limited, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560094, India. sriram.p@genotypic.co.in.
authors.forename: Sriram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parameswaran
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Unit, Genotypic Technology Private Limited, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560094, India. chellappa@genotypic.co.in.
authors.forename: Chellappa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gopalakrishnan
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Unit, Genotypic Technology Private Limited, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560094, India. gopalakrishna.r@genotypic.co.in.
authors.forename: Gopalakrishna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ramaswamy
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, U.P., India. ak.shasany@cimap.res.in.
authors.forename: Ajit Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shasany
mesh_terms: D054628:Genome, Chloroplast; D018745:Genome, Plant; D008515:Medicine, Ayurvedic; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D031339:Ocimum / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020005:Propanols / Q000737:chemistry; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D020005:Propanols