Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Characterization and Commercialization of genetically improved Indian Catmint (Nepeta cataria L.) cultivar: A potential green insect-repellent technology |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. gunjan tiwari, CSIR - Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Uttar Pradesh |
Timeline Start Year : | 2022 |
Timeline End Year : | 2025 |
Contact info : | gunjantiwari@cimap.res.in |
Equipments : | Table top refrigerated centrifuge |
Details
Executive Summary : | Catmint or catnip, scientifically known as Nepeta cataria L., is an annual aromatic herb of family Lamiaceae and native to south-western Asia. The aromatic oil of N.cataria is used as an insect or mosquito repellent in herbal industries and shows diversity for iridoid alkaloids i.e. nepetalactone (NPL). Reports on commercial cultivation of catmint are minimal globally. The majority of the population remains largely undomesticated. Moreover, information on Indian catmint germplasm is inadequate and necessitates exploring its trade potential as a safe, natural resource of insect repellents. Not a single Indian commercial cultivar is available in this crop. Besides, the expression of economically important traits such as oil content, oil quality and oil yield are strongly influenced by genetic, molecular, and environmental factors in catmint. The molecular characterization of desirable traits, including regulation of secondary alkaloids is less explored field in this crop’s breeding which is required to develop improved cultivars for specific traits in catmint. CSIR-CIMAP is proactively involved in the identification and development of advance breeding lines for high oil (more than 0.2%), high nepetalactone (more than 94%), and high oil yield from the past few years, which needs to be characterized further and evaluated for commercialization of first Indian catmint cultivar. Therefore, the objective of the proposed work will be to characterize the desirable breeding line along with control to identify major regulatory genes and their allelic variants involved in the expression of desirable traits. Moreover, the desirable line will be evaluated further in advance varietal trails for release as a variety and multiplied later for commercial cultivation. The Illumina based next-generation sequencing platform with an integrated bioinformatics analysis will be used to identify and characterize differentially expressed genes in desirable breeding line and its control plant under controlled environmental conditions. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis will also be done to validate the specificity of genes associated with economically important traits. These genes will be further utilized to develop novel gene-specific markers in catmint. |
Total Budget (INR): | 41,84,525 |
Organizations involved