March 2022

#IAmScience: Kathryn Vanden Hoek

March 25, 2022 By Balslew, Karly (MU-Student) in #IAmScience Tags: plant science

By Karly Balslew | Bond LSC

Kathryn Vanden Hoek proves that it is never too early to dive into research if you have a passion for it.

The undergraduate research assistant started hands-on research her freshman year through the Freshman Research in Plants Programs (FRIPS). This program introduces new students to plant research and exposes them to a lab setting. She matched with the Chris Pires lab at Bond LSC in January of 2021.

“I absolutely love it,” Vanden Hoek said. “I knew for a long time that I wanted to do research, so I wanted to start as soon as I possibly could and I’m really glad that I did.”

Now a sophomore, Vanden Hoek joined the BioInformatics in Plants program (BIPS) where she paired up with a computer science student to work in the lab. Her partner focuses on the coding side of a project while Vanden Hoek sticks with working directly with plants.

She uses phytoremediation on cakile maritima plants. Also known as the European sea rocket, this sprawling species can be found growing on sandy beaches along coastlines in Europe. Cakile maritima are typically used to learn about plant reactions. In the lab, she uses the plant to extract pollutants out of the soil. Vanden Hoek studies the genes of the plant and how it can withstand certain pollutants, which could be applied to other species in the future.

“There are so many amazing things that you can do with plants,” Vanden Hoek said. “They are so intricate and complex, but we can take advantage of that and learn more about how they work.”

A typical day for her starts with classes before coming to Bond LSC. Here she collaborates with graduate student Shawn Thomas to conduct the hands-on portion of their experiments. Thomas is also part of the Pires lab but both students collaborate with the Mendoza lab frequently as well. Vanden Hoek runs various protocols, works in the sterilization hood frequently, and goes over posters for upcoming conferences.

Her goal is to work on solutions for climate change, a cause she is extremely passionate about. For her, interacting and questioning the natural world has always played a large role in her life.

“My grandma once said when I was a little kid, ‘I have never seen a kid who loves playing in the dirt so much,’” Vanden Hoek jokes. “My sister was the Barbies and fashion girl, my brother was the video games boy and I was outside digging in the dirt and playing with flowers all the time.”

Her parents are both in the medical field, which originally encouraged her to become a doctor. She constantly immersed herself in the medical world, so it made sense to her to go down that path. However, a senior project in her high school calculus class quickly changed her mind.

“I was giving the presentation in class and talking about possible solutions with everyone, and there was just this spark inside of me,” she said.

Her project covered climate change and from there she combined her love for science, plants, and the environment. Pursuing this field has also helped her through the pandemic and to overcome other obstacles.

“I am a huge introvert,” Vanden Hoek confesses. “My freshman year I struggled a lot, especially with COVID and I preferred individual projects because I wanted to just get my research done by myself. But through the programs and classes I’ve been in, I understand that it’s a lot nicer to have other people to lean on and have others’ perspectives on the research.”

She explains that she has gained a deeper sense of understanding for others in her research area from the interactions she has had at Bond LSC. When she isn’t in the lab, she loves to explore the world of fashion design.

“I think if I didn’t have this drive to make a difference that I would quit and try to become a fashion designer,” Vanden Hoek said.

She loves thinking about new clothing ideas, thrifting, and reworking clothing pieces into new outfits. Taking care of her houseplants, painting, and baking are a few favorite hobbies that allow her to slow down in her everyday life. Yet even in her downtime, she is still a tenacious learner and absorbs as much information as possible.

“My mom always said that I’m relentlessly curious,” she said. “I feel like that’s how a lot of researchers are — they wonder about life and how things work — and science is their avenue to explore that.”

Bond Welcomes New Principal Investigator John Driver

March 24, 2022 By Balslew, Karly (MU-Student) in Research Tags: #swine, influenza

John Driver | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC

By Karly Balslew | Bond LSC

Pigs may have a reputation for being lazy and dirty but to immunologist John Driver, they are the key to understanding influenza in humans.

“Pigs are a great animal to study influenza in because they are susceptible to getting the flu,” Driver said. “They are like a mixing vessel for influenza viruses.”

Swine have their own strains of influenza virus but can also contract strains from other species like birds and humans. When that happens, these different flu viruses can recombine and create new variants in the animal that can occasionally give rise to viruses that cause human pandemics.

Driver arrived at Bond LSC in mid-January as part of an initiative to create an influenza center in Columbia with Bond principal investigator Henry Wan. While Wan works on the molecular aspects of how new influenza viruses emerge, Driver’s work focuses on the host immune system.

“We’re really interested in understanding how to prevent the next pandemic and learn how to control influenza in livestock,” Driver said.

The researchers will study how influenza viruses move between animal species and recombine into new viruses inside different hosts.

Originally from South Africa, Driver received his undergraduate degree in Animal Science from the University of Pretoria. In 2000 he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to work at Alltech Inc, an animal feed additive company, as an intern. Before coming to Mizzou, Driver was a faculty member in the Animal Science Department at the University of Florida for ten years.

Driver hasn’t always worked with pigs. Earlier in his career, he preferred a smaller test model, the mouse.

Once he left Kentucky, he moved north to work at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. The laboratory’s Mouse Genome Informatics database supplies information on mouse genetics and biology internationally. Here he discovered his love for immunology.

“I was totally immersed in mouse genetics and Type 1 autoimmune diabetes. It was a wonderful place to be for learning about all sorts of genetic models for various diseases,” Driver said.

Driver decided he wanted to dig deeper into his research and go beyond what a mouse model could offer him after six and a half years at the Jackson Laboratory. This landed him at the University of Florida studying pig models.

While studying influenza in mice and other small animals like ferrets is possible, Driver notes there are a lot of drawbacks compared to using pig models.

“A mouse can’t transmit the flu to another mouse and if a mouse does get the flu, it dies very easily,” he said. “Pigs transmit the flu just like we do. They cough, sneeze and get infections like humans. When we study a pig, we get a pretty good idea of what is going to happen in humans.”

Understanding viruses in pigs not only aids the swine industry but sheds light on developing vaccines and how to mitigate flu in humans as well. Mizzou is home to the National Swine Resource Center where researchers can create genetically edited pig models to study many diseases. This center is one factor that attracted Driver to MU.

“I came here to be more productive at what I do,” Driver said. “We have more animals to study [here], and we can make new models to ask more questions.”

Driver is excited to dive into the research and work with his students in the lab. His lab will look at how different cells in the pig immune system react during an influenza infection and build up resistance over time.

“I want to make real progress in understanding the host-pathogen interactions involved in influenza immunity,” he said. “I’m interested in studying rare types of immune cells and how they regulate disease resistance of the host.”

Being hands-on in the lab with his students is something Driver prioritizes. Even though his students are just starting with basic training he has enjoyed working with them.

“I like to be with my students in the trenches and running experiments with them,” he said. “It’s very rewarding to see students grow, mature, and learn things.”

Whether at his previous lab in Florida or his new home at Bond, Driver is looking forward to leading the next generation of scientists and innovators.

“It’s nice to know that they’re going to have very bright futures in science and be future leaders and I had a small contribution to play in getting them there.” Driver said.

#IAmScience: Jiude Mao

March 18, 2022 By Penquite, Cara (MU-Student) in #IAmScience Tags: spinal muscular atrophy

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC

Learning has no borders for Jiude Mao. His inquisitive mindset drives him to cross research disciplines and countries chasing the answers to his questions.

Mao studies mutations in the gene Ighmbp2 that result in spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress type one (SMARD1) and Charcot Marie Tooth 2S (CMT2S) in the Chris Lorson lab. Mao’s research attempts to better understand the effects that different mutations have on disease severity and progression that could help develop treatment options to alleviate disease symptoms.

The idea of finding treatment for a genetic disease was not always something Mao considered possible. Growing up in China, Mao remembers a time when such research was not widely known.

“When I was in college, I did not know of any genetic disease that can be cured,” said Mao, a research scientist at Bond LSC. “But now development of FDA approved drugs and gene therapies can be used in human patients.”

Mao’s focus is on a cellular level, but he started out studying animal science at Yangzhou University in China. Intrigued by research studies being conducted in North America, Mao applied for a doctorate program after getting his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in China.

“I find [for] Western countries that do research, it’s more restricted and more model-based,” Mao said.

03112022_IAmScienceMao_CP_1 — Mao uses a pipette while working on western blot assay. The western blot analysis allows the researchers to identify how much of a particular protein is present in a sample. | Photo by Cara Penquite, Bond LSC

Mao met George Foxcroft from the University of Alberta, while the professor was attending an international conference in China. Two years later, Mao got the chance to move to Canada and study in Foxcroft’s lab as a Ph.D. student.

“I like his approach [to research] a lot, and I just followed his [example] and do science that way myself too,” Mao said.

While in Foxcroft’s lab, Mao studied reproductive physiology and attended another international conference where he met Billy Day, an MU animal science principal investigator who became his first postdoc supervisor. After working in Day’s lab, Mao stayed at MU and worked in Michael Roberts and Cheryl Rosenfeld’s labs before joining the Lorson lab.

“In every lab environment I try to learn new techniques and new fields of study,” Mao said.

Regardless of lab, Mao likes to focus on what compelled him to study science in the first place.

“Learning new things and making new discoveries even if they are challenging makes life more interesting,” he said.

03112022_IAmScienceMao_CP_4 — Mao checks the protein transfer efficiency for his western blot analysis using a light table to see the darkness of bands at different molecular weight across different samples with same total protein loading on the Coomassie blue stained PAGE gel. Similar heaviness of bands indicates equal transfer efficiency across samples. | Photo by Cara Penquite, Bond LSC

In the Lorson lab, Mao focuses on understanding how mutations in the gene Ighmbp2 result in SMARD1 — a rare neurodegenerative disease marked by the deterioration of neurons that send signals from the spinal cord to muscle and the defining clinical symptom of respiratory distress. Mao, in collaboration with other members of the Lorson lab, utilizes six mouse models based on mutations seen in human patients to understand disease development and progression.

When excited by a new discovery in the lab, Mao shares his research with his family, particularly while spending more time at home over the pandemic.

“When I come to work, I focus on my work and really use these eight, nine hours at work,” Mao said. “So when I get home, my mindset is to be with my family, and if I have free time I read more science papers.”

For Mao, striking a balance between home and work life is good for both his work and his family.

“That’s how you do good science, balance work and family,” he said.

03112022_IAmScienceMao_CP_6 — Mao points to the protein ladder used for western blot analysis. Darker lines represent different weight of proteins that show on PAGE gel and membrane. The molecular mass of wild type protein he studies is 110 kDa while the proteins in mutant animals are much lower. | Photo by Cara Penquite, Bond LSC

Satisfied with his experience at MU, Mao plans to continue his work at Bond LSC.

“I like Mizzou, we have so many different cores for research and the essential and critical equipment for you to use,” Mao said. “We’re really spoiled by the common equipment provided by the center. Besides your lab, you have spare state-of-the-art equipment to use.”

Having worked in science continually since his graduate studies, Mao still finds purpose in research.

“I would say I always had that passion to do science, and it seems to me I never had any moment to want to change,” Mao said.

Competing with COVID: Researcher suggests varying from vaccines to fight virus

March 16, 2022 By Penquite, Cara (MU-Student) in Research Tags: #MizzouResearch, COVID-19, virology

CC_COVID — COVID-19 virus particles have spike proteins, represented in red, that attach to receptors on host cells. Antivirals block the receptors on host cells so the virus cannot infect more cells. | Creative Commons Photo

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC

Vaccines were the light at the end of the tunnel throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but virus mutations threaten to extinguish hope of a quick end to the pandemic. Kamlendra Singh turns towards antivirals as the next step.

“There will be a time we will find an antiviral which will be very difficult for the virus to mutate [and avoid],” Singh said, “That’s what we are after.”

The Singh lab studied COVID-19 antiviral compounds that prevent binding between the virus and host cells with help from Siddappa Byrareddy, professor and vice-chair of research in the Department of Pharmacology Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). The first COVID-19 antiviral compound Singh’s team discovered during their in a preliminary study conducted in mouse models, has been filed for a patent while they continue to search for the antivirals that target different proteins of the virus. These compounds would prevent the virus from entering cells even after exposure to the virus.

The antiviral compound disrupts the interaction between the ACE2 receptor on the surface of host cells and the spike protein on the virus so the virus cannot infect cells. ACE2 acts as a doorway into the cell where COVID-19 binds, enters and takes over the cell. Once inside, the virus hijacks the cell and uses it to create more virus. Additionally, the virus releases its genome into the host cells, activating cell defense mechanisms which can be more dangerous than the infection itself.

While vaccines prepare the immune system to fight off COVID-19, Singh’s antivirals simply block this doorway.

“The very first thing was to find the compound that can inhibit viral entry because it is the first step of the infection,” Singh said. “If you can block the very first step then you can block everything else.”

Vaccines act as a practice round for the body where the immune response learns which antibodies are effective against the virus. But when the virus mutates, antibodies built up from vaccination or prior infection may be less effective against the mutated virus.

The antiviral compounds discovered by Singh and his team do not have this problem since they bind to the host cell’s receptors where few mutations occur. Additionally, the compounds can change their shape in response to those mutations that may occur.

“We call it ‘wiggling and jiggling,’” Singh said. “The compound has the capability to change it’s shape conformation.”

This ability to change shape is not unique to COVID-19 antivirals. Drawing on previous experience working on HIV antivirals, Singh explains that shape changing properties are common in molecules with single bonds between their component atoms.

“If you have a single bond somewhere, then they can change or they can reorient and bind someplace,” Singh said.

Singh believes antivirals may be the key to fighting COVID-19 even with emerging mutants. While vaccines mitigated COVID-19 rates and hospitalizations, they also might have played a role in the creation of new mutants.

“It’s probably too early to say, but it looks like these variants are probably evolving under the pressure of antibodies,” Singh said. “Those antibodies may have been induced by either direct infusions giving the antibodies [to patients], or they may have been induced by other vaccines or by previous infection.”

While viruses also mutate under the pressure of antivirals, Singh hopes to find an antiviral that is difficult for the virus to avoid through mutation.

“We have been working on developing a better compound using the compounds we discovered, and we have found one more compound that has at least 10 times better efficacy against [SARS-Cov-2],” Singh said.

Kamlendra Singh is a research assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and assistant director of the Molecular Interactions Core at Bond LSC. Singh wished to express his sincere gratitude to Prof. Byrareddy (University of Nebraska Medical School). Without their collaboration, the discovery of the antiviral compounds would not be possible. Singh is also thankful to two students – Saathvik Kannan (a Hickman High School student) and Austin (a Mizzou undergrad). Without the help of these two talented young scientists, the research would not have been so successful. Finally, Singh mentioned that the support from the Bond Life Sciences Center has been extremely valuable in his research.

#IAmScience: Juliette Baker

March 11, 2022 By Balslew, Karly (MU-Student) in #IAmScience Tags: gene therapy

By Karly Balslew | Bond LSC

Science and art may feel like completely separate departments but for research scientist Juliette Baker, this couldn’t be further than the truth.

Her mom is a graphic designer and fueled her passion for art while Baker’s own love for science fused the two worlds together. She even drew a diagram for her master’s thesis on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

“Honestly, people don’t think science and art overlap a ton,” Baker said. “But, I’m making tons of schematics for people to understand, and it’s all my artistic brain, really.”

At one point she considered becoming a science illustrator but views painting and art to be more of a de-stressor and hobby rather than a career path. When it comes to science, Baker wants to be more hands-on and focus on direct patient applicable research. However, her path wasn’t picture clear at the start of her academic career.

Baker — who now works at Bond LSC in the lab of Chris Lorson — earned a bachelor’s degree in health science at Mizzou, and planned on going to med school. She worked six months as a medical assistant but realized shortly after that this career path wasn’t for her.

“I love science but what I loved was the research part,” Baker said. “So, I did my masters in a year and a half instead of two years to get back on track.”

After she received her master’s degree in biomedical science last year, an opportunity arose to work at Bond LSC, and she couldn’t refuse.

Baker explained that she had to find three people to comprise a committee for her master’s program. This committee would approve and decide if she would receive her degree. Baker added a fourth person, Chris Lorson, since her research project for her master’s thesis was a collaboration with him and her mentor, Nicole Nichols.

“He [Lorson] emailed me the day I got approved, I think it was before I even found out that I got approved, and said ‘so are you looking for a job?’”

Lorson, a principal investigator at Bond LSC, co-founded Shift Pharmaceuticals to focus on treatment for patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), an inherited motor neuron disease. He was looking for a full-time researcher and Baker checked every box in the job description.

“They were looking for a full-time researcher and it was basically doing exactly what I learned to do my entire master’s so he thought it would be perfect if I could transition to working in his lab,” Baker said.

Baker primarily works for SHIFT but also helps with ongoing projects and aids other students in the Lorson lab.

“It was perfect because I was super worried about having to apply to jobs and figure out what I’m now qualified to do,” Baker said.

Currently, her research is on gene therapy treatments for patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). This inherited nerve disease causes abnormalities in the nerves in feet, hands, legs, and arms. She also helps with the SMA projects and SMARD1 project, a rare type of spinal muscular atrophy.

“Honestly this lab helped me realize that [gene therapy] is the kind of specialty that I want to stay in,” Baker said.

However, there is a stigma surrounding gene therapy and people are apprehensive when it comes to this type of treatment. One common misconception is that scientists are altering DNA or changing body composition, which Baker explains isn’t the case.

“What we are trying to do is to modify the production of the gene so it will go back to normal levels,” Baker said. “So, it’s not making the gene any different or adding a new gene that wasn’t there before, we are just modifying how your body is producing [the gene].”

Baker hopes the stigma surrounding gene therapy decreases over time as more people use it for different diseases, and it’ll become more accessible. The more attention this type of therapy receives, the cheaper it will become for people in the future.

“That’s the biggest thing that I hate about my job is that, yes, this treatment is going to be amazing and lifesaving, but it’s going to be expensive,” she said.

She plans on going back to school and getting her Ph.D. and one day working in the pharmaceutical industry. But for now, she enjoys working with Lorson and other undergraduates in the lab.

“The most rewarding part is definitely getting to see how my work and everything I do every day directly affects people with the diseases,” Baker said.

#IAmScience: Lynden Voth

March 4, 2022 By Penquite, Cara (MU-Student) in #IAmScience Tags: virology

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC

Invested in two to three hobbies at a time, Lynden Voth is not afraid to try something new. His flexible mindset – applied equally in his personal life and research – led Voth to discover his passion for molecular pathogenesis and therapeutics.

“I was kind of in a completely different headspace when I first came here, and then as I started to do some research and understand what the labs were working on, I ultimately found an interest that I was not aware of before,” Voth said.

Voth is a second-year graduate student in the Donald Burke lab at the Bond Life Sciences Center. Most of his work focuses on how cells make different proteins, a pivot from his undergraduate work in virology.

“I came in wanting to do viruses, and I ultimately chose [a lab] that was just completely out of left field that I had some interest in but was definitely not my top choice,” Voth said. “Then I got in and really found an interest and enjoyment of the kinds of questions and the kinds of things they were wanting to ask.”

As an undergraduate he studied coronaviruses in the Anthony Fehr lab at the University of Kansas. Transitioning into undergraduate research at the start of the pandemic, Voth experienced cutting-edge research from the start.

“We were in a period of understanding certain factors in coronaviruses that might be important for the immune system,” Voth said.

Growing up in the small town of Newton, Kansas, Voth’s interest in science began from a young age. The transition to college opened the world of research as he navigated opportunities at KU.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I really wanted to do something involved in medicine or science, but I think my interest in research science has really increased in the college years,” Voth said.

Voth waited until junior year to look for undergraduate research opportunities when he realized the importance research experience before applying for graduate school. Fortunate to get into Fehr’s lab during the pandemic, Voth gained two years of research experience before graduating KU.

“It was definitely one of those things that came late in the game, and I’m glad that I was able to figure it out before it was too late,” Voth said.

When it came time to decide on a direction for his graduate studies, Voth leaned on support from Fehr while remaining open-minded about his field of study. Fehr encouraged Voth to seek out opportunities at MU and find a field of study he enjoyed.

“I really like to work on viruses, but I also just wanted to expand to see what was out there and test things out,” Voth said.

Once he came to MU and tried out new fields of research, he found interest in the Burke lab. Currently undecided on his thesis question, Voth works on several projects in the lab, but his research all focuses on diversity-generating retroelement systems – cellular processes that allow for diversity in protein production.

This process usually happens when viruses or bacteria are trying to create a protein that will allow it to infect a cell. With these systems, the virus or bacteria can create many different proteins to find which is most effective.

“For me personally it’s super cool to see how there’s this constant competition, and the mechanisms of that,” Voth said. “And it’s one of those things that is starting to be studied but there’s a lot of questions that are still available.”

Voth finds his schedule as a graduate student manageable, balancing his time between classes, experiments, reading and research.

“I personally really like that somewhat freedom where you can have a day where you just sit down and read a bunch of papers and then come in on the weekend and do an experiment for six to eight hours,” Voth said.

Voth also finds time for outside interests, and his main hobby involves learning the specifics of growing different plant species. He spends time outside the lab growing carnivorous plants and learning the specifics of airflow, temperature and amount of light required for their growth.

His other hobbies include playing instruments and learning new languages, and he often must fight the inclination to learn many subjects at once.

“I’m trying to focus on one [instrument] right now. There was a time I was trying to learn guitar and bass and what ever else, but [I’m] trying to just get more specifically good at one thing versus another,” Voth said.

His intention for learning new languages is personal with extended family living in Germany.

“I want to get a good solid base in German and then maybe look into other languages. Russian is also super interesting,” Voth said.

Voth educates himself when it comes to his hobbies, and in the lab he now teaches younger students the basics of research, but he attributes much of his success in the Burke lab to the people he learned from when he first started. His mentor from his initial rotation with the Burke lab, Jordyn Lucas, helped familiarize him with many new techniques.

“Her mentorship was super great for understanding how to not only learn things about the Burke lab, but also how to learn about … things in the future. If I go to a different lab, I can use some of the things she taught me to be able to understand techniques wherever I go,” Voth said.

Finding his passion through the rotation phase of his graduate studies, Voth encourages other students to seek out the best learning environments for them.

“I’m just really thankful for Mizzou and specifically for the Burke lab. I think it’s a great environment, and I would encourage anyone to rotate and find the environment that works for them,” Voth said.

Protecting Plants: Researchers identify genes responsible for vital antimicrobial natural products

March 3, 2022 By Penquite, Cara (MU-Student) in Research Tags: CRISPR, genetics, research

CC_DNA_Pixabay — DNA is the genetic material that determines the characteristics of plants and animals. Using CRISPR gene editing, researchers altered the characteristics of rice plants. | Creative Commons Photo by Pixabay

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC

A tickle in the throat, a stuffy nose, congestion . . . the tell-tale signs of a cold are familiar to most, and many know that with enough rest, the immune cells on standby in the human body will destroy any invaders. But what happens when plants get sick?

The Bing Yang Lab from the Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri studied this question with the Reuben Peters lab at Iowa State University by analyzing the purpose of gene clusters in rice. Along with the Zhaohu Li lab at China Agricultural University, the researchers — utilized CRISPR gene editing to determine the function of certain gene clusters in rice.

“I thought this could be something very important,” Yang said, “We can take out a huge amount of DNA to see if the gene cluster could play a role in this resistance [to disease].”

CRISPR – a gene editing tool – allows the researchers to change the DNA of the rice plants by removing sections of genetic code, known as gene clusters. By removing the cluster, scientists can see what breaks in the plant, thus identifying each cluster’s role in the plant’s health.

“These were what we termed biosynthetic gene clusters. They have unrelated genes that are close together, their physical proximity on a chromosome, and they all act in one single pathway to make a small family of natural products,” Peters said.

The scientists compared unedited rice plants with rice plants missing the gene clusters, and they determined that those without the gene clusters had decreased resistance to certain diseases. This was due to the decreased production of antimicrobial — or pathogen fighting — natural products.

The genes code for enzymes that create labdane-related diterpenoids — natural products responsible for protecting plants from infection, termed phytoalexins — a defense response.

The loss of these compounds made the plants less resistant to disease. While humans have mobile cells that can travel to pathogens through the immune system, plants rely on local chemical responses to fight off invaders.

“They’ll recognize components of the fungal cell wall, or they’ll interact with specific proteins from the fungus or the bacteria, [and] that triggers what we consider to be an immune response,” Peters said. “They have to rapidly make these compounds in what would otherwise be a general photosynthetic cell or just an epidermal cell on the surface of the leaf.”

By identifying which genes produce certain chemicals, the researchers have a greater understanding of the plant immune response, and they can manipulate the genetics of the plants to create stronger immune responses.

“We can fine tune those genes, which could increase the [protections] and make the plant more resistant to the pathogen,” Yang said.

Peters suggested since the scientists know which genes code for these proteins, they can make the proteins and create an antibiotic to prevent infections in crops and livestock.

“We do think that some of these compounds are going to be important for potential pharmaceutical activity,” Peters said. “Not necessarily the ones in rice, but related compounds, and that’s another reason we studied this.”

This research published online in New Phytologist October 16, 2021, under the title “Dissecting the labdane-related diterpenoid biosynthetic gene clusters in rice reveals directional cross-cluster phytotoxicity.”