Ophiorrhiza pumila Genome DataBase

Ophiorrhiza pumila, a fast-growing herbaceous plant from Rubiaceae family is a model plant to study MIA biosynthesis and regulation, and a sustainable source for camptothecin. O. pumila hairy roots have shown to accumulate high levels of camptothecin and serve as an experimental toolkit to understand MIAs biosynthesis for over a decade. O. pumila offers a unique resource to understand the evolution and diversity of MIAs. Being a member of the Rubiaceae family, which includes Coffee canephora with a high-quality genome assembly, Ophiorrhiza provides us an excellent opportunity for comparative genome analysis to understand evolutionary mechanisms for alkaloids biosynthesis at the onset of divergence between these two plant species. Previous studies have shown a correlation of camptothecin biosynthesis and its accumulation levels with the conserved mutation in two of the amino acids in the DNA topoisomerase I in camptothecin producing plants, including species from Ophiorrhiza genus to survive its cytotoxicity. The resource provides access to the reference genome resource, including predicted gene models, annotations, genome browser, KEGG pathways mapping, and KEGG pathway comparison with selected eight plant species.