Project description:Crude extracts of Moorea producens JHB (with blank solvent controls), grown under normal conditions or with excess sodium iodide, and run by LCMS on a Thermo LTQ FT and LCQ Advantage, respectively. Isolated pure compound mzXML files from the LTQ FT by direct nanomate injection.
Project description:Woody plant material represents a renewable resource that has the potential to produce biofuels and/or novel materials with greatly reduced CO2 emissions. The study of viral infection in plants has largely focussed on detrimental symptoms, such as leaf yellowing or cell death that result in reduced crop yields. Apple rubbery wood (ARW) disease is the result of a viral infection that causes woody stems to exhibit increased flexibility. Biochemical and histochemical studies suggest the phenotype is a result of reduced lignification, specifically within the fibre cells of woody xylem. Expression analysis and proteomic data suggests that the downregulation of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) is responsible for decreased lignification. PAL is required for the first committed step in the phenylpropanoid pathway that leads to lignin biosynthesis. This is consistent with a large increase in soluble phenolics, including the lignin precursor phenylalanine, in symptomatic xylem. Downregulation of PAL appears to result from a widespread siRNA induction by the infected host, triggered by the virus. Symptomatic wood exhibited increased digestibility comparable to those seen in genetically engineered plants that alter lignin biosynthesis. To our knowledge this is the first example of a virus that alters lignin metabolism and offers a unique route to address the problem of the recalcitrant nature of plant biomass and a possible route to generating wood with altered mechanical properties.
Project description:Woody plant material represents a renewable resource that has the potential to produce biofuels and/or novel materials with greatly reduced CO2 emissions. The study of viral infection in plants has largely focussed on detrimental symptoms, such as leaf yellowing or cell death that result in reduced crop yields. Apple rubbery wood (ARW) disease is the result of a viral infection that causes woody stems to exhibit increased flexibility. Biochemical and histochemical studies suggest the phenotype is a result of reduced lignification, specifically within the fibre cells of woody xylem. Expression analysis and proteomic data suggests that the downregulation of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) is responsible for decreased lignification. PAL is required for the first committed step in the phenylpropanoid pathway that leads to lignin biosynthesis. This is consistent with a large increase in soluble phenolics, including the lignin precursor phenylalanine, in symptomatic xylem. Downregulation of PAL appears to result from a widespread siRNA induction by the infected host, triggered by the virus. Symptomatic wood exhibited increased digestibility comparable to those seen in genetically engineered plants that alter lignin biosynthesis. To our knowledge this is the first example of a virus that alters lignin metabolism and offers a unique route to address the problem of the recalcitrant nature of plant biomass and a possible route to generating wood with altered mechanical properties.
Project description:The tropical marine cyanobacterium Moorena producens JHB is a prolific source of secondary metabolites with potential biomedical utility. Previous studies of this strain led to the discovery of several novel compounds such as the hectochlorins and jamaicamides; however, bioinformatic analyses of its genome suggested that there were many more cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters yet to be characterized. To potentially stimulate the production of novel compounds from this strain, it was co-cultured with Candida albicans. From this experiment, we observed the increased production of a new compound that we characterize here as hectoramide B. Bioinformatic analysis of the M. producens JHB genome enabled the identification of a putative biosynthetic gene cluster responsible for hectoramide B biosynthesis. This work demonstrates that co-culture competition experiments can be a valuable method to facilitate the discovery of novel natural products from cyanobacteria.