Utilizing Big Data to Identify Tiny Toxic Components: Digitalis.

ABSTRACT: The botanical genus Digitalis is equal parts colorful, toxic, and medicinal, and its bioactive compounds have a long history of therapeutic use. However, with an extremely narrow therapeutic range, even trace amounts of Digitalis can cause adverse effects. Using chemical methods, the United States Food and Drug Administration traced a 1997 case of Digitalis toxicity to a shipment of Plantago (a common ingredient in dietary supplements marketed to improve digestion) contaminated with Digitalis lanata. With increased accessibility to next generation sequencing technology, here we ask whether this case could have been cracked rapidly using shallow genome sequencing strategies (e.g., genome skims). Using a modified implementation of the Site Identification fr

SUBMITTER: Hunter ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8391216 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature