PRJNA168347
Withania somnifera Transcriptome or Gene expression
Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal (Family, Solanaceae), is one of the most valuable medicinal plants synthesizing large number of pharmacologically active secondary metabolites known as withanolides. Though the plant has been characterized in terms of phytochemical profiles as well as pharmaceutical activities, not much is known about the genes responsible for biosynthesis of these compounds. Phytochemical profiling suggests that withanolide biosynthesis may take place differentially in leaf and root of Withania with differences in the content and/or nature of withanolide moiety. To develop basic understanding about withanolide biosynthesis, we established transcriptome sequences of leaf and root tissues of NMITLI-101 chemotype using 454 pyrosequencing. The transcriptome data obtained was of 260 and 204 MB with 834080 and 721780 ESTs in leaf and root libraries respectively. Assembly of data yielded 21445 contigs and 68103 singletons in NIMTLI-101 leaf and 20797 contigs and 94017 singletons in NIMTLI-101 root transcriptomes. Each transcriptome had approximately 47% large contigs with an average length of 853 bps. Each library was annotated using BLASTx against TAIR and nr databases. Using established transcriptome, we have identified total 2553 and 3262 SSR markers for leaf and root, which will help in future genetic studies of this valuable medicinal plant.