Data from: Genome sequencing of herb Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) unravels key genes behind its strong medicinal properties

Background: Krishna Tulsi, a member of Lamiaceae family, is a herb well
known for its spiritual, religious and medicinal importance in India. The
common name of this plant is ‘Tulsi’ (or ‘Tulasi’ or ‘Thulasi’) and is
considered sacred by Hindus. We present the draft genome of Ocimum
tenuiflurum L (subtype Krishna Tulsi) in this report. The paired-end and
mate-pair sequence libraries were generated for the whole genome sequenced
with the Illumina Hiseq 1000, resulting in an assembled genome of 374 Mb,
with a genome coverage of 61 % (612 Mb estimated genome size). We have
also studied transcriptomes (RNA-Seq) of two subtypes of O. tenuiflorum,
Krishna and Rama Tulsi and report the relative expression of genes in both
the varieties. Results: The pathways leading to the production of
medicinally-important specialized metabolites have been studied in detail,
in relation to similar pathways in Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants.
Expression levels of anthocyanin biosynthesis-related genes in leaf
samples of Krishna Tulsi were observed to be relatively high, explaining
the purple colouration of Krishna Tulsi leaves. The expression of six
important genes identified from genome data were validated by performing
q-RT-PCR in different tissues of five different species, which shows the
high extent of urosolic acid-producing genes in young leaves of the Rama
subtype. In addition, the presence of eugenol and ursolic acid, implied as
potential drugs in the cure of many diseases including cancer was
confirmed using mass spectrometry. Conclusions: The availability of the
whole genome of O.tenuiflorum and our sequence analysis suggests that
small amino acid changes at the functional sites of genes involved in
metabolite synthesis pathways confer special medicinal properties to this
herb.