Jatropha curcas is a drought resistant, perennial plant that grows even in the marginal and poor soil. Raising Jatropha is easy. It keeps producing seeds for many years. In the recent years, Jatropha has become famous primarily for the production of biodiesel; besides this it has several medicinal applications, too. Most parts of this plant are used for the treatment of various human and veterinary ailments. The white latex serves as a disinfectant in mouth infections in children. The latex of Jatropha contains alkaloids including Jatrophine, Jatropham and curcain with anti-cancerous properties. It is also used externally against skin diseases, piles and sores among the domestic livestock. The leaves contain apigenin, vitexin and isovitexin etc. which along with other factors enable them to be used against malaria, rheumatic and muscular pains. Antibiotic activity of Jatropha has been observed against organisms including Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. There are some chemical compounds including curcin (an alkaloid) in its seeds that make it unfit for common human consumption. The roots are known to contain an antidote against snake venom. The root extract also helps to check bleeding from gums. The soap prepared from Jatropha oil is efficient against buttons. Many of these traditional medicinal properties of Jatropha curcas need to be investigated in depth for the marketable therapeutic products vis-à-vis the toxicological effects thereof. This mini review aims at providing brief biological significance of this plant along with its up-to-date therapeutic applications and risk factors.
Aim: The study focused on identifying markers linked to aquaporin genes from the expressed regions of S. melongena using bioinformatics applications. Methodology: The EST collections were explored for identification of aquaporin markers for water stress response using comparative analysis and in-house developed repeat motif detection program. An algorithm was developed to generate repeat motifs which can be effectively used for collecting EST of S. melongena to filter the sequences having repeat motifs for further analysis. Results: From the results generated, the 22 potential sequences with the markers were found to be associated with aquaporin proteins. The detected repeat motifs are inherent part of markers and these markers are found to be evolutionarily conserved and associated with aquaporin proteins. Hence, identifying markers for the presence of aquaporin proteins play an important role in water diffusion across cell membranes in plants. Interpretation: Identifying aquaporin markers are useful for plant breeders for developing water stress tolerant crops during elevated temperatures. These markers are linked to water channel proteins that belong to superfamily Major Intrinsic Protein, that primarily plays an important role in conduction of water in plants.
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