Biodiversity mining through transcriptome analysis

Abstract

Secondary metabolites or chemical constituents of plants are functional products synthesized through more complex multienzymatic secondary metabolite path- ways. The release of few secondary metabolites is related to the exertion of mor- phological differentiation and maturation during plant development. Secondary metabolite compounds designate huge chemical diversity, i.e., each plant pos- sesses its own complex diverse set of metabolites. This diversity imparts analyti- cal challenges, characterization of a number of metabolites in parallel, and quantification of particular compound of interest. These compounds itself are related to significant plant traits (color and fragrance of flowers, taste and color of food, and resistance toward pests and pathogens) and also for the synthesis of fine chemicals such as medicines (anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidants, etc.), flavors, fragrances, dyes, insecticides, pheromones, and antimicrobial agents. The emergence of cost-effective high throughput sequencing or next- generation sequencing (NGS) technology quickly expanded transcriptome infor- mation of several plant species, which could be analyzed for quick identification of previously unknown genes and enzymes and elucidation of biosynthetic path- ways. The present chapter details diverse secondary metabolites, gene expres- sion patterns, molecular basis of chemical diversity of the compounds, and application of NGS based transcriptome profiling for biosynthetic pathway elucidation.