Fungal molecule whacks weeds
| Autor: | Carmen Drahl |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
chemistry.chemical_classification
Natural product Dihydroxyacid dehydratase Computer Networks and Communications fungi Fungus Biology biology.organism_classification Genome Aspterric acid chemistry.chemical_compound Enzyme chemistry Biochemistry Hardware and Architecture Mode of action Gene Software |
| Zdroj: | C&EN Global Enterprise. 96:9-9 |
| ISSN: | 2474-7408 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/cen-09629-scicon9 |
| Popis: | The enzyme dihydroxyacid dehydratase is a promising weed-control target, but synthetic molecules designed to block the enzyme have not worked when tested on plants. Now, researchers have successfully targeted the protein with a molecule from fungi, aspterric acid (shown), and they say the molecule could become an effective weed killer with a new mode of action (Nature 2018, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0319-4). The work comes from a team led by Steven E. Jacobsen and Yi Tang of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Jiahai Zhou of Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. They reasoned that fungi, which frequently kill plants, might make molecules that target critical enzymes like dihydroxyacid dehydratase. If so, the fungus would also have to contain a gene that protects itself from the molecule’s effects. So the team scanned fungal genomes looking for protective genes located near molecule-making machinery. They found just such a gene combination and learned that |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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