Course assignment ppt slides

1. IMPACTS OF GENOMICS,
PROTEOMICS, AND METABOLOMICS
IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF
MEDICINAL PLANT RESEARCH
BY
OFFOR, GLORIA NWABUGWU
AWOGBINDIN, VICTORIA
OLADELE, FOLUKE WEMIMO
Lecturer: Dr. Ogunlana, O.O.

2. Introduction
 Genomics, proteomics and metabolomics :
generally known as -omics technologies
o Genomics- description of the genetic information
o Proteomics- description of proteins
o Metabolomics- the qualitative and quantitative analysis of
all low molecular weight metabolites of a cell or organism and
their dynamics in biological systems.
 These technologies will allow the analysis and
characterization of biological systems, thereby opening up
new perspectives for ethnobotanical and medicinal plant
research purposes.

3. Fig. 1. Histogram showing the total number of pharmaco-toxicological publications in the
broad field of the application of omics to medicinal herbs from 2000–2011

4. Genomics and Transcriptomics
 Genomics - originally meant analysis of
the whole genome.
◦ Now, it commonly refers to large scale, high through-put
molecular analysis of multiple genes, gene products or
regions of genes.
 Transcriptomics, often included in the
term genomics, depicts the expression
level of genes.
 For both, the techniques are:
 DNA sequencing
 DNA fingerprinting/DNA barcoding

5. Proteomics
 Proteomics- large scale study of proteins,
particularly their structures and functions.
 Give a more accurate picture of gene expression
than transcriptomics:
◦ Presence of non coding RNAs
◦ Sequence of a protein-coding gene may give little
information on protein activity
◦ mRNA degradation
◦ Alternative splicing
◦ Post translational modifications etc.

6. Steps and techniques in proteomics
 Protein seperation
 Two- dimensional gel electrophoresis
 Protein analysis- identification and activity
measurement
◦ Mass spectroscopy- molecular weight of proteins
◦ Affinity chromatography, fluorescence resonance energy
transfer (FRET) and surface plasmon resonance- used to
identify protein-protein or protein-DNA interactions.
◦ Fluorescent proteins like green fluorescent protein (GFP),
yellow FP, cyan FP or red FP- used to study cellular events
such as localization of proteins to membranes and to cellular
organelles.

7. Metabolomics and Metabonomics
 Metabonomics broadly aims to measure the global,
dynamic metabolic response of living systems to
biological stimuli or genetic manipulation.
 Metabolomics seeks an analytical description of
complex biological samples.
◦ aims to characterise and quantify all the small molecules
(metabolites) in such a sample.
 In practice, the terms are often used
interchangeably, and the analytical and modelling
procedures are the same

8.  The techniques used are
multidisciplinary:
 For target compound analysis and metabolic
profiling
o Gas chromatography (GC)
o High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
o Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
Metabolomics makes use of several
complementary analytic methods; in particular,
"hyphenated“ techniques eg
 LC-MS
 LC-NMR
 LC-NMR-MS
 LC-UV-NMR-MS-FTIR

9. Applications in medicinal plant
research
 Botanical identification/authentication
 Isolation and characterization of active
components
 Standardization of herbal extracts
 Screening of target molecules
 Mechanism of effect of phytopreparations
 Identification of synergistic activity of plant
extracts
 Drug metabolism and toxicity studies

13. Disadvantages of Omics
technologies
 Difficult
 Expensive
 Time-consuming
 Labour-intensive- requires multidisciplinary
expertise

14. Conclusion
 Medicinal plant research has indeed focused for long
on the search for the (mostly single) “active
principle”, but single components can behave in
completely different ways from a phytocomplex.
 A change of paradigm towards the application of
complex mixtures in medicine may thus be possible
with the application of omic technologies, paving the
way to new fields of phytogenomics, -proteomics
and –metabolomics.
 Hence, the thrust for the search of the single active
principle may lose its importance, thereby simplifying
and economizing medicinal plant research.

15. References
 Ulrich-Merzenicha, G., Zeitlera, H., Jobstb, D., Paneka, D.,
Vettera, H. and Wagnerc, H. (2007). Application of the "-Omic-"
technologies in phytomedicine. Journal of Natural Remedies,
Vol. 7: 1 – 18.
 Cho, W. C. (2007). Application of Proteomics in Chinese
Medicine Research. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine,
Vol. 35, No. 6, 911–922
 Wen, J.K. and M. Han. (2004). Application of genomics and
proteomics in study of traditional Chinese medicine. Zhong Xi
Yi Jie He Xue Bao 2: 323–325,
 Buriania, A., Garcia-Bermejod, M.L., Bosisiof, E., Xug, Q., Li
h, H., Dongi, X., Simmondsj, M., Carrarab, M., Tejedore, N.,
Lucio-Cazanae, J. and Hylandsa,P. (2012). Omic techniques in
systems biology approaches to traditional Chinese medicine
research: Present and future. Journal of Ethnopharmacology

16. Science should be as
simple as possible but
not simpler…
Albert Einstein