The
plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for their
anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-pyretic and anti-cancer properties. It
is widely used for therapeutic purposes. The genome map will help in
making new medicines using the plant. These compounds are metabolites,
compounds that are a by-product of plant metabolism, typically used for
plant self-defence. These metabolites are very poorly understood because
of lack of genomic information. The sequence reveals the interesting
pathways used by Tulsi to make ursolic acid, a medically important
compound. If one could now use modern synthetic biology techniques to
synthesise ursolic acid, it would be of great benefit.
Source: Sowdhamini Ramanathan and S. Ramaswamy, 2015, National Centre of Biological Science, Bengaluru
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