Research Projects

Banana (Musa spp.), an important fruit crop enriched with essential vitamins, minerals, and specialized metabolites is consumed across Asia, Australia, Europe, America and Africa continent (Afzal et al. 2022). Plant’s edible and non-edible parts show medicinal and nourishing properties due to the presence of specialized metabolites. Metabolite profiling of different banana cultivars revealed that anthocyanins, an important class of flavonoids are accumulated in non-edible part (bract and peel) and not in edible pulp part of plant (Fu et al. 2018). For elucidation of their biosynthesis, several enzymes related to flavonoid biosynthesis have been characterized in banana (Pandey et al. 2016; Busche et al. 2021). Considering nutraceutical importance of anthocyanins, transcriptional regulation of their biosynthesis in different parts of banana plant needs to be illustrated. The involvement of MYB-bHLH-WDR regulatory complex (‘MBW’ complex) in production of anthocyanins, affecting their organ-specific distribution has been revealed in angiosperms (Jiang et al. 2023). The role of miRNAs as repressors of anthocyanin production has been reported in dicotyledonous plant species (Gou et al. 2011). The activation and repression functions of miRNAs affecting anthocyanin production are dependent on target MYB genes coexpressed with acting miRNA; as reported for dual action of miRNAs including miRNA828 and miRNA858 in anthocyanin regulation in grapes (Tirumalai et al. 2019). The putative regulators of flavonoid biosynthesis have been revealed in banana, which are mainly R2R3-MYB proteins; MaMYBPA1 and MaMYBPA2 are reported as proanthocyanidin-specific R2R3 MYB activators, whereas MaMYBPR1, MaMYBPR2, MaMYBPR3 and MaMYBPR4 characterized as repressors (Pucker et al. 2020; Rajput et al. 2022). Recently the host lab identified cytokinin-responsive type-B response regulators, MaRR_B9 and MaRR_B12, as negative regulators of anthocyanin accumulation (Rajput et al. 2025). However, the transcriptional regulatory system of anthocyanin biosynthesis in banana, a monocot is yet to be deciphered at miRNA level. In banana genome, a total of 235 miRNAs from 37 families were identified, amongst which some miRNAs have been characterized for participating in different growth and developmental processes of plant (D'Hont et al. 2012; Lakhwani et al. 2020; Kong et al. 2022). However, none of the member of miRNA family from banana has been reported as regulator of anthocyanin biosynthesis like miRNA828 and miRNA858 yet. The aim of current proposal will focus on the identification and characterization of miRNA/s involved in regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis in banana. The possible post-transcriptional (miRNA) regulatory mechanism of anthocyanins will establish gene-metabolite correlation in organ specific manner. This study will pave a way towards the development of genome edited banana cultivars with biofortified properties of these specialized metabolites.