Genetic characterization of L-asparaginase gene found in selected members of family Solanaceae

Abstract

Probing anticancer genes in medicinal plants is important for their appreciable use in cancer therapy. In the present study three species (Withania somnifera, Withania coagulans, Solanum lycopersicum) of family Solanaceae were studied for the anticancer gene(s) encoding L asparaginase, an enzyme used in the treatment of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). This enzyme has been reported in a variety of legume species but rather scarcely in family Solanaceae. This study focused on the gene responsible for coding the enzyme, revealed successful amplification of DNA product of ca. 840bp in Withania somnifera. The product was amplified, sequenced. Further sequence characterization and translation carried out was: the amino acid percentage, secondary structure, physiochemical properties, intrinsic disordered profile, hydropathy plot, biological and molecular functions. For this purpose, different bioinformatics tools were employed such as: FFPred, PSIPRED, DISOPRED, Peptide Property Calculator and Expasy. The presence of helix and sheet regions depicted that the enzyme being assessed in Withania was highly stable. Further, the characterization through GenTHREADER, revealed the pairwise energy of the enzyme aligned with Hydrolase (PDB id 3c17) which was found highest i.e. -552.9 and most favourable. The number of aligned amino acids was highest too (i.e. 256 amino acids), predicting the most promising conformation. Therefore, the data analyses depicted that the enzyme from W. somnifera may be employed in the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. As a future recommendation, it is suggested that the efficacy of enzyme extracted from W. somnifera may be tested through clinical trials.