Identification of genes associated with the production of withanolides in Physalideae

Withanolides are important metabolites in plant defense and possess several important pharmacological activities such as: Anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic and immunomodulator (Chandra, 2013; Misico et al. 2011). Much more importantly, withanolides are very diverse in Physalideae and certain types are specific to subtribes, genera and species (Agarwal et al. 2018; Chang et al. 2007). However, very few studies have correlated the metabolic and genomic profiles of multiple species under controlled conditions (Schirmer, 2014). This prevents direct comparisons between species, given the large effect that the environment has on the genes that are expressed and the metabolites associated with these. Such comparisons can be made from a metabolomic and transcriptomic research point of view, these fields being important, since when talking about secondary metabolites it is possible to identify changes in their structure that correlate to the expression of previously unknown genes. The above allows us to compare between species that have differential patterns of metabolite and transcript expression, which from a phylogenetic framework, give us information about how genes have been distributed and the groups that possess them. All this is driven by the fact that some genera within the group have been little studied at a genomic level (i.e., Cuatresia, Quincula, Chamaesaracha). As a result, there is little information about the different expression pathways and the clade remains largely unexplored. It is therefore expected to get to know the different genes that govern the production of the different types of withanolides in Physalideae, compounds with great medicinal and cultural value in today's world.