Comparative study of two Moringa species using Omics approaches

Abstract

Maximum 2048 characters: Moringaceae is a plant family with 13 species, two of which are native to India, Moringa oleifera Lam and Moringa concanensis Nimmo. M. oleifera has received more attention than the other members of this family, primarily because of the enormous health and nutritional benefits of this plant, as well as its ability to thrive in drought conditions. M. concanensis, a closely related species found in India, mainly in the Konkan region, has long been used as a medicinal plant, on the other hand, has received little attention in terms of sequencing and chemical identification. As a plant native to India, research on M. concanensis will aid in its preservation and will reveal the medicinal and nutritional benefits of various parts of the plant. This study aims to present the first report of the M. concanensis transcriptome and a comparison with the M. oleifera transcriptome. This was accomplished through the use of NGS techniques and computational methods, supported by metabolite analysis and in vitro assays. Together, the study discusses the transcriptome profiling of Moringa species, explores potential antidiabetic compounds present in these species, determines inhibitory activity to study antidiabetic activity, and finally look into the genes involved in the response to drought stress. The analysis revealed the importance of leaf tissue in antidiabetic activity. In experiments, the leaf tissue demonstrated significant inhibitory activity against important antidiabetic targets in the gastrointestinal tract. The metabolite profiling of leaf tissue and the assay studies on compounds like Benzylamine led to the conclusion that the presence of such compounds in the tissue could be explained by its high activity. Furthermore, the genome and transcriptome enabled to investigate drought stress response genes and their promoter region in M. oleifera plant. Overall, this study not only provides transcriptome resources for Moringa species, but also sheds light on antidiabetic potential of both species.