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Bringing to light the preponderance and origin of spontaneous triploid cytotypes in medicinal Tinospora cordifolia: implications for genetic improvement

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Abstract

Tinospora cordifolia (Giloy), with immense therapeutic properties has been used as a powerful rasayana and immunomodulator in alternative systems of medicine. In the present study, two distinct morphotypes (arbitrarily labeled 1 and 2) were identified in the wild Indian giloy populations. Flow cytometric analysis for DNA quantification revealed 1.5-fold moreDNA (2C = 4.32 pg) in morphotype 2 than in morphotype 1 (2C = 2.8 pg). The cytogenetic analysis showed the somatic cells of morphotype 2 to possess triploid (2n = 3x = 39; first report in giloy) compared to diploid (2n = 2x = 26) chromosome number in morphotype 1. While the diploid T. cordifolia and the allied diploid T. sinensis cytotypes exhibited normal meiosis, the triploids showed highly irregular meiosis with average (10.80 II) number of bivalents per cell outnumbering trivalents (3.52 III) and univalents (6.68 I). The chloroplast PCR–RFLP analysis in the diploid and triploid T. cordifolia, and T. sinensis involving 224 chloroplast genes/intergenic spacers and 28 restriction enzyme combinations revealed the contribution of diploid T. cordifolia as the maternal progenitor of the triploid cytotype. The present study unveils a new wild triploid giloy cytotype with significantly higher biomass of great commercial advantage and relevance in plant breeding and biotechnology. The cultivation of this novel, and vigorous triploid giloy cytotype is anticipated to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of superior, uniform giloy raw material for the Ayurveda industry and will also help minimize batch-to-batch variations commonly observed in Ayurvedic drugs. We have also characterized the triploid cytotypes to understand their nature and origin to shed light on evolutionary genetic differentiation mechanisms in giloy, a species with relatively obscure genetics.

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Most data that supports the findings of the manuscript is included in this MS and available from the authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India for financial support. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the subject editor for comments on the manuscript and helpful suggestions.

Funding

The research was supported by award of a grant no Z.18017/187/CSS/R&D/DL-02/2013–14-NMPB IVA to VRR and SNR by National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Sector 125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201313, India

    Rakesh Kr. Thakur, Manju Chaudhary & Soom Nath Raina

  2. Department of Botany, Hansraj College, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Vijay Rani Rajpal & Anand Sonkar

  3. Department of Life Sciences, Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201310, India

    Satyawada Rama Rao

  4. Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, 284003, India

    Pankaj Kaushal

  5. Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, 226015, India

    Basant Kumar Dubey

  6. Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Shailendra Goel

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  1. Rakesh Kr. Thakur
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Contributions

VRR, and SNR conceptualized, wrote the grant, supervised research, guided Ph.D and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. RKT designed and conducted experiments, analyzed data, prepared tables, figures, and the 1st draft. MC performed cp RFLP analysis; PK and BKD helped in flow cytometric analysis. AS, SRR and SG contributed to editing of the MS and data analysis. VRR and SNR finalized the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Vijay Rani Rajpal or Soom Nath Raina.

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Thakur, R.K., Rajpal, V.R., Chaudhary, M. et al. Bringing to light the preponderance and origin of spontaneous triploid cytotypes in medicinal Tinospora cordifolia: implications for genetic improvement. Nucleus 66, 245–260 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13237-023-00437-3

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