Bitter gourd, a widely recognized medicinal vegetable, is renowned for its diverse health benefits, markedly its lipid- and glucose-lowering effects. It contains a rich array of bioactive phytochemicals with nutraceutical properties, making it a valuable resource for various food and culinary applications. Recent developments highlights the huge economic potential of its alternative components. For instance, the residual composition could have growing industrial applications, including as a natural coloring agent, pollution monitoring, and a source of enzymes for trade.
Thus, increasing demand for bitter gourd as both a food source and for industrial applications underscores the need for value addition through ongoing breeding initiatives aimed at enhancing genotypic traits. However, molecular characterization of these traits in bitter gourd remains relatively underexplored compared to other cash crops. Additionally, the available molecular data are fragmented and dispersed, which presents challenges for assisted breeding and gene editing efforts.
We have developed the Bitter Gourd Genomic Resource Information System (BGGRIS) to provide a comprehensive interface for accessing detailed genomic information. This system integrates analyzed data from various public repositories, enabling the analysis of genomic footprints and the identification of a diverse array of molecular variants across the genome. Additionally, it offers a user-friendly access to extensive datasets, including 114,598 transcripts, 4,914 differentially expressed genes, 32,570 predicted SSR markers, and 162,850 primers. Additionally, it catalogs a wide range of genomic features such as SNPs, Indels, signature transcripts, transcription factors and regulators, lncRNAs, miRNAs, and several significant QTL.
The genomic footprints provided by BGGRIS are invaluable resources for the discovery of new genetic units and variants. The precise utilization of this data has the potential to accelerate the pace of bitter gourd genomics for auxiliary improvement and aid in assisted breeding and molecular interventions to enhance cultivation and production.
