RNA seq analysis of CWS11, an annual, Nagouri ecotype also known as Ashwagandha of commerce (Withania somnifera)

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is the chief natural source of withanolides (steroidal lactones), with diverse pharmacological and therapeutic activities. The core germplasm of Ashwagandha at India primarily categorized as Annual, cultivated and wild perennial ecotypes exhibit diverse indigenous as well as naturalised phenotypic and phytochemical variability. These diverse ecotypes inter-cross freely yielding new genetic substitution's of morphotypes and chemotypes under specific spatial and temporal regulation of Withanolide biosynthesis. To assist metabolite targeted breeding and to understand genotype to phenotype relationship for leaf architectural traits and leaf specific withanolides i.e Withaferrin-A, Withanone, Withanolide D and Withanosides leaf tissues have been subjected to RNA seq of strand specific libraries. Illumina HiSeq 2000 NEXTflex Directional RNA-Seq (dUTP based)derived strand specific libraries of cultivated annual inbred CWS11 resulted in 4546.6MB data assembled in 67622 contigs with an average N50 of 2011. Transcriptome assembly was annotated against Uniprot Solanaceae ,Viridiplantae and Kegg databases.Transcriptome assemble generated 4865 SSR and 120700 homozygous SNPs.Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is the chief natural source of withanolides (steroidal lactones), with diverse pharmacological and therapeutic activities. The core germplasm of Ashwagandha at India primarily categorized as Annual, cultivated and wild perennial ecotypes exhibit diverse indigenous as well as naturalised phenotypic and phytochemical variability. These diverse ecotypes inter-cross freely yielding new genetic substitutions of morphotypes and chemotypes under specific spatial and temporal regulation of Withanolide biosynthesis. To assist metabolite targeted breeding and to understand genotype to phenotype relationship for leaf architectural traits and leaf specific withanolides i.e Withaferrin-A, Withanone, Withanolide D and Withanosides leaf tissues have been subjected to RNA seq of strand specific libraries. Illumina HiSeq 2000 NEXTflex Directional RNA-Seq (dUTP based)derived strand specific libraries of cultivated annual inbred CWS7 resulted in 4478.2MB data assembled in 62867 contigs with an average N50 of 2028. Transcriptome assembly was annotated against Uniprot Solanaceae , Viridiplantae and Kegg databases. Transcriptome assemble generated 4444 SSR and 112322 homozygous SNPs