Evolutionary Analysis of a Few Protein Superfamilies in Ocimum tenuiflorum

Abstract

Phytochemicals in the form of secondary metabolites produced by plants have been used for therapeutic purposes, some of the well-known examples being artemisinin for treatment of malaria, vinblastine and vinblastine and vincristine for treatment of cancer. Plants produce several such secondary metabolites having anticancer, cardioprotectant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, artificial sweetener, antimicrobial properties, and plants have evolved elaborate pathways to synthesize these complex biomolecules. Some of these molecules can be highly complex in their chemistry, and it is often impossible to synthesize them in the laboratory, while plants have evolved enzymes with a remarkable capacity to catalyze these reactions with chemo-, regio-, and stereospecificity. Understanding sequence and structural properties of plant enzymes involved in the synthesis of metabolites will help in deciphering the mechanism underlying the synthesis of these phytochemicals. In the present chapter, we describe a computational pipeline for identifying, validating, and analyzing the key components involved in the synthesis of terpenoids and a less studied class of proteases called rhomboids. A bioinformatic study of this nature will have wider implication as not only a tool to understand sequence and structure–function relationships of some of the well-studied metabolites and enzymes, to aid protein engineering for biotechnological utilization of these commercially valuable molecules.