Genomic Resource Generation in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Abstract

Plant genomic resources are genetic material of actual or potential value which can be utilized for the improvement
of specifi c traits in Agri-horticultural crops. The generation of genomic resource in medicinal plants is important
because they contain bioactive compounds or secondary metabolites important for human health. The demand
for these compounds is increasing due to their application in herbal medicine. The recent “omics” techniques
have made generation of genomic resources much effi cient and cost eff ective. The improvement in sequencing
technology from 2nd generation (NGS) to 3rd generation has reduced sequencing cost and thus brought many
more crop genomes within range of analysis. The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) based whole genome
and transcriptome sequencing in medicinal and aromatic plant has played a vital role in generating genomic
resources for eff ective conservation, crop improvement and better understanding about secondary metabolite
biosynthesis in medicinal and aromatic plants. In present review, the progress of generating genomic resources
such SSR resources, EST-SSR resources, transcription factors, transcriptome analysis, and whole genome sequence
analysis in selected medicinal and aromatic plants has been updated, which may be further utilize in medicinal
and aromatic plant improvement programs