Bitter Food but Good Medicine from Cucumber Genetics High-tech genomics and trad. Chinese med come together as researchers ID genes responsible for intense bitter taste of wild cucumbers. The same compounds also have potential to treat # cancer and #diabetes . The bitter flavor in wild #cucurbits family incl cucumber, pumpkin, melon, watermelon and squash - is due to #cucurbitacins and protects wild plants against predators. >>The fruit and leaves of wild cucurbits have been used in Indian/ Chinese med for 1000s of yrs, as emetics and purgatives and to treat liver disease. More recently,cucurbitacins have been shown to # kill or #suppress growth of cancer cells. Bitterness is controlled by 2 genetic traits ~ # Bi:confers bitterness on the whole plant ~ #Bt : leads to bitter fruit. >>Using DNA #sequencing ; they IDd 9 genes involved in making cucurbitacin, and the trait can be traced to 2 transcription factors that switch on these 9 genes, in either leaves or the fruit, to produce cucurbitacin. >>#Domestication tweaked cucumber genetics to make the fruit more edible. Understanding that process might open up approaches to developing other food crops based on plants that are naturally # inedible or #poor in nutrition + make it much easier to #produce cucurbitacins in large enough quantities to use in clinical trials and potentially in med. eg #anti -malarial drug # artemisinin , from trad Chinese medicine, is now being produced either as a precursor molecule in yeast or through synthetic biology systems. eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ 2014-11/uoc--bfb112514.php
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:50:32 +0000
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