Project Number: 6615-22000-027-03
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Dec 01, 2011
End Date: Nov 30, 2013

Objective:
1. Identify defense-induced small molecules in Arabidopsis, maize, rice, and soybean. 2. Confirm the identity of previously unknown metabolites through de novo synthesis. 3. Study biosynthetic pathways and biological functions for a subset of novel plant metabolites.

Approach:
Elucidate novel bioactive chemicals in maize, rice, soybean and Arabidopsis that function in defense against insects and pathogens. Plants will be challenged with a defined set of elicitors, insects and pathogens. Induced chemical changes will be explored using a series of GC/MS- and LC/MS-based metabolic profiling approaches. Strongly induced unknown analytes will be chromatographically purified and indentified via NMR and synthesis where applicable. Biological activity will be established using previously developed insect and microbial bioassays which monitor for altered growth and fitness. Using available mutants and molecular tools biosynthetic pathways required for these inducible metabolites critically evaluated which, in turn, will identify genetic resources to demonstrate function in planta.