Discovering Genes Involved in the Synthesis of Secondary Metabolites From the Seeds of Moringa Oleifera Through Transcriptome Analysis

• Main Authors: Panes, Vivian A, Discar, Ma. Divina Kristi A
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2021
• Subjects: transcriptome; RNA-sequencing; secondary metabolites; M. oleifera; Biology; Genetics and Genomics
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/biology-faculty-pubs/93; https://archium.ateneo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=biology-faculty-pubs
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Moringa oleifera is a widely used crop that produces seeds with a plethora of benefits encompassing health and nutrition. Secondary metabolite compounds were determined in the seeds of Moringa oleifera that possess nutritional and pharmacological benefits. Although various phytochemical researchers reported the presence of secondary metabolites in M. oleifera seeds, there is a lack of research on the genes encoding for enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of secondary metabolites in the seeds of M. oleifera. In the present study, RNA sequencing was used to analyze the transcriptome of the mature seed embryos of M. oleifera. Biological pathway analysis revealed 416 upregulated genes encoding for 11 enzymes involved in the catalytic steps of the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways, and 63 unigenes encoding for 8 enzymes involved in the catalytic steps of the alkaloid pathway. These findings however need further validation using qRT-PCR which is a reliable and robust technique in order to validate the presence and expression of genes encoding for enzymes leading to the synthesis of secondary metabolites in the mature seed embryos of M. oleifera.