Decoding The Chemical Vocabulary Of Plants

Sunday, May 4, 2014 - 03:40 in Biology & Nature

Stanford, CA—Plants spend their entire lifetime rooted to one spot. When faced with a bad situation, such as a swarm of hungry herbivores or a viral outbreak, they have no option to flee but instead must fight to survive. What is the key to their defense? Chemistry. Thanks to this ongoing conflict, plants have evolved into amazing chemists, capable of synthesizing tens of thousands of compounds from thousands of genes. These chemicals, known as specialized metabolites, allow plants to withstand transient threats from their environment. What's more, some of the same compounds benefit humans, with more than a third of medicinal drugs derived from plant specialized metabolites. read more

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