Executive Summary : | Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth., commonly known as Patchouli (Lamiaceae family), is an important aromatic medicinal plant known for its highly valued essential oil (EO). It is a perennial herb, native to the Philippines, and is widely cultivated in India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Patchouli EO is greatly valued for its characteristic woody, earthy, and camphoraceous odor (Deguerry et al., 2006). Patchouli oil is used in many fragrances, scents, cosmetics, detergents, and incense sticks (Lal et al., 2018) including food industry for flavoring pan masala, beverages, frozen desserts, and gelatins (Ramya et al., 2013) Patchouli EO also possesses many pharmacological properties like antidepressant, antiseptic, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties (Swamy et al., 2015). The Patchouli EO market is valued at US$ 75.3 Mn in 2023 and is estimated to grow drastically in coming years, and there has been a surge in demand for this EO post-covid19. Currently, Indonesia is the major producer (80%) of Patchouli EO, producing 1000-1200 MT of oil/annum. In India, Patchouli is widely cultivated in Assam, MP, Orissa, WB, Karnataka, and TN (source: NHB) with Karnataka as the largest contributor. However, cultivation of Patchouli in India is still meager producing only 20 tons of oil / annum and there is huge scope to increase India’s contribution to the global supply. So far, there is no synthetic alternative for the EO as well as patchoulol, the principal and price-determining component that gives the oil its characteristic odor. Due to huge gap in supply and demand of patchouli oil both domestically and globally, there is an impelling need to increase the production of patchouli EO with enhanced patchoulol content and higher biomass of the plant through biotechnological interventions. This not only will make India a key player in patchouli oil production but also can facilitate achieving self-reliance (Atmanirbharata) and transform India from being a net-importer to a net-exporter of this valuable EO. Patchoulol is a tricyclic sesquiterpene formed by the action of patchoulol synthase (PTS) utilizing farnesyl diphosphate. Transcription factors (TFs) are commonly known to regulate the expression levels of genes involved in metabolic pathways, including growth and development. In spite of the fact that the patchoulol pathway has been elucidated, only a few studies have looked at the role of TFs in patchoulol biosynthesis. In the proposed study, we aim to identify and functionally characterize negative regulators (bHLH and MYB class of transcription factors) of patchoulol biosynthesis and trichome development in patchouli. Further, the characterized negative regulators in this study and other published studies (Wang et al., 2019, Li et al., 2021, Huang et al., 2022) will be used for knocking out through CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing, with the ultimate goal of generating patchouli plants with enhanced oil yield and patchoulol content. |