De Novo transcriptome analysis of Plumbago zeylanica to understand Plumbagin biosynthesis pathway

Plumbago zeylanica is medicinally important plant belonging to family plumbaginaceae. It is large perennial shrub native in West Africa but found throughout India in wild state. It is used in folk medicine to treat many diseases. It contains naphthaquinone derivatives like plumbagin, 3-chloro plumbagin etc. having medicinal important. Plumbagin has been reported to possess medicinal properties like antibacterial, antimalarial, antiplasmodial, anti-inflammatory, antiatherosclerotic, antidiabetic, anticancer, hypolipidaemic, and antifungal. The roots of the mature P. zeylanica plants has higher concentration of plumbagin and meager amounts are present in stem and leaf. Although P. zeylanica is medicinally important plant and being used from ancient time but genomic resources are limiting. The present study has generated leaf and root specific transcriptome data. The leaf and root transcriptome sequencing will help in understanding genes involved in plumbagin as well as other napthaquinones derivative. Further characterization of candidate genes will help to understand their function in plumbagin biosynthetic pathway.