Genomic Intervention for Amelioration of Bioactive Profiles in Plants for Health Security

Increasing incidence of several chronic diseases, specifically cancer, diabetes and AIDS, and malnutrition leading of alarming rates of death and suffering at global level has led to serious attention for utilization of herbal medicines and products in the last decade. Genetic linkage mapping in a number of medicinal plants and nutraceutical crops has facilitated the positioning of genes and QTLs controlling content of many bioactives and thus offered a scope for marker-assisted breeding for their genetic improvement. Association mapping has hastened the process through of identification of trait-linked molecular makers in the germplasm level. Recently, genome sequencing of a number of medicinal plants including holy basil (Ocimum sanctum), neem (Azadiracta indica), hemp (Cannabis sativa) and ginseng (Panax ginseng), etc. and nutracutical crops including tomato, potato, carrot, olive, peppers, etc. has led to the possibility of identification of genes underlying the production of an array of bioactives to be followed by translational genomics for improvement of the medicinally and nutritionally desired compounds with high content and proportion. Further, information generated from transcriptomics and metabolomics studies could supplement genetic improvement in these plants. The international Consortium on Phytomedomics and Nutriomics (ICPN), established in 2010, has organized six workshops during the PAG Conferences from 2011 to 2016 facilitating discussions on achievements made and future prospects but on plant-specific manner. It is high time now to foster a global collaboration with people from academia, policy-making bodies and funding agencies both from public and private sectors to depict the roadmap to attain 'functional food security'.