Kantara, Dhanta Kathe: the legend of the forest

It is very rare that a Kannada movie that does not fit into a traditional genre becomes a huge hit, not just in Karnataka but across India. This is even more remarkable when the movie is not a high-budget star-studded enterprise. A folk story about the legend of the enchanted forest does have great appeal when combined with great visuals of the forest and the traditional "Bhoota Kola" dance. Although never actually stated, the movie is about the Western Ghats of India. If any forest in the world is enchanted, the Western Ghats would be the first place one would think of. As a biodiversity hotspot, the forests of the Western Ghats hold many marvelous treasures that remain hidden from humankind. 

We sequenced the genome of the Mesua Ferrea tree last year to investigate the demographic history of several forest trees. This year, we follow that up with the genome of the Wild Jack (Ayani) or Artocarpus hirsutus. Generating the genomes of forest plants by itself will not bring out the magic and lore hidden in their base pairs. Rather, interesting insights that could help us understand the adaptation of these trees to their unique habitat and how this has been achieved through changes in the genome would be of great value not only for commercial exploitation but also to sustain the forests and their diversity. In the pre-print, Patil et al. present the newly generated genome of the Wild Jack and compare its genome with that of two other species of the genus Artocarpus. By doing such comparative genomic analysis, various changes to gene sequences, as well as the complement of genes, are identified. Interestingly, it is found that the repeat content has changed drastically in the closely related commonly cultivated species Artocarpus heterophyllus (Jackfruit). Subsequently, the effect of these repeats on demographic inference is also investigated and builds upon previous work on Populus and human genomes. Nonetheless, the role of habitat is found to be more pronounced than that of repeats or the region of the genome used for the analysis. What other secrets does the enchanted forest hold? Will we ever be able to explore this forest further and what impact this will have on the forest itself are questions for tomorrow.