Dr. Craig Schenck, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Biochemistry, University of Missouri
Thursday February 1st, at 3:30pm,
HORT 117 or Via Zoom.
“Evolution of plant chemical diversity: gene co-option, enzyme promiscuity, and pathway sequestration”
Abstract: To cope with environmental pressures, plants produce an arsenal of structurally diverse chemicals, often called specialized metabolites, which have various industrial and medicinal properties. The expansion and alteration of core metabolism has given rise to the evolution of structurally diverse plant specialized metabolites. However, the underlying biochemical mechanisms potentiating chemical diversity are poorly understood. Gene duplication provides raw material for the emergence of novel traits, but evolutionary outcome depends on which genes are retained and how they become neofunctionalized. Here, we use plant specialized metabolic pathways to understand how novelty emerges and how plant metabolites contribute to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. We find that various mechanisms contribute to evolution of lineage-specific metabolic pathways in plants including gene co-option events and modification of enzyme activity, maintenance of enzyme promiscuity, and changes in cellular localization.