Medicinal Plant Resources
Genetic resources for medicinal plant species
To date, only partial understanding of the formation of plant-derived medicinal compounds at the enzyme, gene and regulatory levels has been attained. It should be emphasized that not a single complex plant medicinal pathway has yet to be completely elucidated at both the enzyme and the regulatory level. The study of plant-derived medicinal compounds has been largely based on narrowly focused investigations. Genome-wide studies of model plant species have, however, resulted in an explosive increase in our knowledge and understanding of basic biological processes. The advent of next generation sequencing now provides a most efficacious means to build the long awaited and urgently needed research infrastructure for more efficiently probing and exploiting plant medicinal compound biosynthetic pathways. A comprehensive medicinal plant transcriptome database will propel medicinal plant species from an orphan-like status into the limelight of plant biochemistry and molecular genetics. The long-term goal of this research, a collaboration between Norman Lewis and colleagues at Washington State University and Dr. Gregory May of NCGR, is for the scientific community to understand the complete formation, storage and regulation of plant-derived medicinal compounds at the enzyme and gene level. Improved understanding will enable the development of alternate sources of known pharmaceuticals and of novel drugs. This project will provide the research community with the urgently needed infrastructure/resources to fully enable and stimulate comprehensive studies of the most compelling and medicinally significant plant biosynthetic pathways. These tools will enable gene discovery, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for the improved production of drugs and for the development of novel drugs. Taken together, we envisage that this will ultimately result in tangible long-term and meaningful benefits for public health. This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
