Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 26, 2026
10:19
Transcriptomic Analysis of C. elegans RNA Sequencing Data Through the Tuxedo Suite on the Galaxy Project
Published on: April 8, 2017
16.5K
Transcriptome analysis of Catharanthus roseus for gene discovery and expression profiling
Mohit Verma1, Rajesh Ghangal1, Raghvendra Sharma1
1Functional and Applied Genomics Laboratory, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
Plos One
|July 30, 2014
Summary
Deep transcriptome sequencing of Catharanthus roseus identified key genes for therapeutic alkaloid biosynthesis. This study enhances understanding of plant specialized metabolism for pharmaceutical development.
Area of Science:
- Plant Biology
- Genomics
- Biochemistry
Background:
- Catharanthus roseus is a medicinal plant known for producing valuable terpenoid indole alkaloids.
- These alkaloids possess significant therapeutic properties, making them important targets for drug development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the specific pathways and enzymes (genes) responsible for the biosynthesis of terpenoid indole alkaloids in C. roseus.
- To provide a comprehensive genomic resource for understanding specialized metabolism in this plant.
Main Methods:
- Deep transcriptome sequencing using the Illumina platform on various C. roseus tissues (leaf, flower, root).
- De novo assembly of sequencing reads to generate unique transcripts.
- Functional annotation, gene ontology (GO) analysis, and in silico analysis for simple sequence repeats and transcription factors.
- Expression analysis to determine tissue-specific gene activity.
Main Results:
- Generated over 343 million reads, resulting in 59,220 unique transcripts.
- Identified 65% of transcripts with homology to existing databases and 35% as potentially C. roseus specific.
- Discovered 11,620 genic simple sequence repeats and 1820 transcription factor encoding genes.
- Expression analysis indicated active bisindole alkaloid production in roots and leaves, with key biosynthetic enzymes localized to aerial tissues.
Conclusions:
- The study provides a valuable transcriptome dataset for C. roseus, crucial for understanding its specialized metabolism.
- Identified genes and pathways involved in vindoline and vinblastine biosynthesis offer targets for metabolic engineering.
- This research is expected to accelerate the development of plant-derived pharmaceuticals.
Related Concept Videos
02:11Reporter Genes
11.4K
Reporter genes are a type of protein-coding gene that are often tagged to a gene of interest. Once inside a target cell, reporter genes usually produce visually identifiable characteristics like fluorescence and luminescence when expressed along with the gene of interest. Thus, reporter genes “report” the presence or absence of genes of interest in an organism, determine the gene expression pattern, or track the physical location of a DNA segment or protein in the cell.
11.4K
02:24Ribosome Profiling
3.2K
Ribosome profiling or ribo-sequencing is a deep sequencing technique that produces a snapshot of active translation in a cell. It selectively sequences the mRNAs protected by ribosomes to get an insight into a cell’s translation landscape at any given point in time.
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique...
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique...
3.2K