Moringa oleifera is an agriculturally, biologically, medicinally and economically important African orphan crop. Wikipediastates M. oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree, native to the southern foothills of the Western Ghats in southwestern India, and widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas where its young seed pods and leaves are used as vegetables, and many parts of the tree are used in traditional herbal medicine. It can also be used for water purification and hand washing.
Moringa trees have been used to combat malnutrition, especially among infants and nursing mothers.Moringa has numerous applications in cooking throughout its regional distribution. The fruits or seed pods, known as drumsticks, are a culinary vegetable commonly used in soups and curries. The leaves are also commonly eaten with many culinary uses, and the flowers are featured in some recipes as well.
Here we present draft genome information of Moringa oleifera. The assembled genome of Moringa oleifera is 217 Mb, and we predict 18451 protein-coding genes for this crop species. We have further analyzed the expansion and contraction of selected gene families, and characterized root-nodule-symbiosis genes, transcription factors and starch biosynthesis related genes in the genome of this species.

Keywords:

• orphan crops
• food security
• whole-genome sequencing
• transcriptome
• root nodule symbiosis
• transcription factors

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Related datasets:

doi:10.5524/101058 IsPartOf doi:10.5524/100504

Additional information:

www.africanorphancrops.org

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