Case Study
Submitted By
| Name: | Ramalingam Sathishkumar |
| Institution: | Bharathiar University |
| Country: | India |
| Email: | sathishkumar_ram@hotmail.com |
Title & Categories
| Case Study Title: | DNA Barcoding of Indian Medicinal Plants (Apocynaceae) |
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Scope
Plant DNA barcoding of Indian Medicinal plants (Apocynaceae)
Ų To design a universal PCR primers for the traditional Indian medicinal plants belonging to Apocynaceae species which are known to have potential medicinal properties like anticancer, antiviral and antimicrobial activities. The plants sources will be obtained from Western Ghats regions.
Ų First the locus of the plastid genes as a target for barcoding of Apocynaceae will be attempted.
Ų From the predicted DNA barcodes, a database will be created for the plant species of Apocynaceae in order to identify the apocynaceae species using universal primers and DNA sequencing.
Purpose
Significance of the study
Ų The proposed research project will help to study the precious medicinal plants biodiversity of our country and also in long-term it will lead to creation of a digital herbarium which will help in plant conservation.
Ų Enabling the rapid and inexpensive identification of our plant population.
Ų Barcodes has a scientific process in quarantine interception, forensic identification and species discovery.
Ų By using limited sequence data, it is an easy way to scan and identify all forms of life.
Ų By collaborating with morphologist and ecologist, DNA sequence data will resolve the many unresolved research questions.
Background
Apocynaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs and herbs, most of the species are available at tropical and subtropical regions. This family includes 1500 species and divided into 424 genera. It has five subfamilies namely Rauvolfioideae, Apocynoideae, Periplocoideae, Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae. The genera of Carissa, Wrightia, Holarrhena, Rauwolfia, Tabernaemontana and Acokanthera are widely distributed in the deciduous and tropical forests of India and it shows rich traditional medicinal value containing antibacterial, antiviral and anticanceral properties. Due to these reasons the medicinal value rich Apocynaceae is chosen for this study.