Executive Summary : | Land plants face various biotic/abiotic stresses, including unforgiving terrestrial environments and co-evolving microbes and herbivores. To cope, plants have expanded their metabolic systems to produce complex organic compounds that contribute to their adaptation to a particular ecological niche. These compounds serve diverse roles, from being attractants of other beneficial living organisms to defense compounds against varied challenges throughout their lifecycle. Plant specialized metabolites (PSMs) have a range of commercial applications, with the Himalayan medicinal plants, such as Picrorhiza kurrooa, being one of the richest sources of these PSMs. P. kurrooa is highly reputed in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for its potent bio-active iridoid glycosides, such as picrosides. However, an increased global demand for this species, combined with unregulated anthropogenic pressures, narrow habitat specificity, and lack of organized cultivation, threatens the species to near extinction. There are over 100,000 known PSMs, which probably represent less than 10% of the actual total in nature. The synergism of genetics and epigenetics plays a vital role in defining the metabolic content and composition of plants vis-à-vis specific environmental cues. The advent of modern sequencing technologies has led to genome-wide surveys, and DNA methylation is believed to be an important but intricate epigenetic modification that plays a critical role in regulating gene activity and sustaining genome integrity.
This research proposal aims to understand the role of epigenetics in the biosynthesis and regulation of valuable specialized metabolites of P. kurrooa, advancing our understanding of local adaptation mechanisms in climate-resilient species like P. kurrooa and enabling traits to be passed on to crops to meet future demands under anticipated conditions of global warming. |