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. 2012 Nov 23:13:663.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-13-663.

Next generation sequencing and de novo transcriptome analysis of Costus pictus D. Don, a non-model plant with potent anti-diabetic properties

Ramasamy S Annadurai  1 , Vasanthan Jayakumar, Raja C Mugasimangalam, Mohan A V S K Katta, Sanchita Anand, Sreeja Gopinathan, Santosh Prasad Sarma, Sunjay Jude Fernandes, Nandita Mullapudi, S Murugesan, Sudha Narayana Rao
Affiliations

Next generation sequencing and de novo transcriptome analysis of Costus pictus D. Don, a non-model plant with potent anti-diabetic properties

Ramasamy S Annadurai et al. BMC Genomics. .

Abstract

Background: Phyto-remedies for diabetic control are popular among patients with Type II Diabetes mellitus (DM), in addition to other diabetic control measures. A number of plant species are known to possess diabetic control properties. Costus pictus D. Don is popularly known as "Insulin Plant" in Southern India whose leaves have been reported to increase insulin pools in blood plasma. Next Generation Sequencing is employed as a powerful tool for identifying molecular signatures in the transcriptome related to physiological functions of plant tissues. We sequenced the leaf transcriptome of C. pictus using Illumina reversible dye terminator sequencing technology and used combination of bioinformatics tools for identifying transcripts related to anti-diabetic properties of C. pictus.

Results: A total of 55,006 transcripts were identified, of which 69.15% transcripts could be annotated. We identified transcripts related to pathways of bixin biosynthesis and geraniol and geranial biosynthesis as major transcripts from the class of isoprenoid secondary metabolites and validated the presence of putative norbixin methyltransferase, a precursor of Bixin. The transcripts encoding these terpenoids are known to be Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR) agonists and anti-glycation agents. Sequential extraction and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) confirmed the presence of bixin in C. pictus methanolic extracts. Another significant transcript identified in relation to anti-diabetic, anti-obesity and immuno-modulation is of Abscisic Acid biosynthetic pathway. We also report many other transcripts for the biosynthesis of antitumor, anti-oxidant and antimicrobial metabolites of C. pictus leaves.

Conclusion: Solid molecular signatures (transcripts related to bixin, abscisic acid, and geranial and geraniol biosynthesis) for the anti-diabetic properties of C. pictus leaves and vital clues related to the other phytochemical functions like antitumor, anti-oxidant, immuno-modulatory, anti-microbial and anti-malarial properties through the secondary metabolite pathway annotations are reported. The data provided will be of immense help to researchers working in the treatment of DM using herbal therapies.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Costus pictus D. Don plant. A) A young C. pictus growing in pot cultures B) A view of fully grown C. pictus at the flowering stage.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Transcript Assembly Information. A) Transcript Length Distribution B) ATGC Composition of assembled transcripts.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percentage distribution of terpenoid pathway related transcripts observed from PlantCyc enzymes annotation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
GO Classification. GO terms were derived based on the similarity search with Swiss-Prot database. The top 10 GO terms in Cellular Component, Molecular Function and Biological Process are displayed.
Figure 5
Figure 5
KOG Functional Classification. 44.4% (24,424) of the transcripts were annotated against the KOG proteins and were assigned KOG functional categories.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Top 10 Pfam domains represented in InterProScan transcript annotations. Pfam Domain annotations were obtained from InterProScan and the top 10 domain annotations were represented in the chart.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Expression profile of the transcripts. The colors ranging from red to green indicate the expression levels from high to low.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Validation of assembled transcripts.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Chromatograms from HPLC. A) Chromatogram of standard bixin along with UV-visible absorption spectrum in the eluting solvent (inset). B) Chromatogram of C. pictus methanolic extract along with UV-visible absorption spectrum in the eluting solvent (inset).
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References

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