刘振华植物次生代谢研究组
刘振华植物次生代谢研究组
Plants are chemical engineers par excellence, and are collectively estimated to make over a million different specialized metabolites. These compounds have important ecological functions, providing protection against attack by pests and pathogens, inhibiting the growth of competing plants, shaping the plant microbiome, and serving as attractants for seed dispersal agents and pollinators. Plant natural products also are a rich source of bioactives for medicinal, agricultural and industrial applications. Despite their tremendous chemical diversity, the mechanisms underpinning the evolution of new metabolic pathways are poorly understood. We are applying multi-omics to elucidate representative biosynthetic pathways in an evolutionary context, aiming to deepen our fundamental understanding of metabolic diversity in plants. Related work, see
here
The ever-increasing body of genome and pan-genome sequence data available for plants will provide enormous genetic and genomic resources, enabling systematic identification and characterization of genetic loci underpinning metabolic diversification within and between plant species. We are digging available (pan)-genomes data (with a particular interest in the Brassicaceae family) and associating with metabolic innovations that could be applied in agriculture and pharmaceutical industry. Related work, see
here
.
Evolution of new protein functions is often initiated by gene and genome duplication. The retention of new copies may be explained by either subfunctionalization or neofunctionalization. Acquisition of an additional biological activity can then evolve to a pleiotropic protein, sometimes leading to chemical innovations. With fundamental knowledge based on an explicit example of how new enzymatic functions are achieved by gene duplication and natural selection (see here), we are applying bioinformatic tools to systematically mine new genes and pathways, aiming to prioritize functional analysis of plant metabolism.
It has been estimated that plants can produce over one million small molecules, but we know less than 0.1% of their biosynthetic pathways, especially in non-model plants. We employ a multidisciplinary approach across bioinformatics, genetics, and chemistry, to tackle the biosynthesis of important plants-produced natural products through comprehensively elucidation of their biosynthetic pathways and paving ways for their applications using synthetic biology. Related work, see
here.
Plants speak a chemical-coded language. How these languages have mediated interactions between plants and other organisms, such as plants, insects and microbes, is poorly understood. Based on our previous experience in the Brassicaceae, now we are setting up research models in the Solanaceae family to uncover the words pattern, grammar and pronunciation of chemical-coded language in plants. You may find related work,
here.
Contact:
E-mail: zhenhua.liu@sjtu.edu.cn
B-535, School of Agriculture and Biotechnology
Shanghai Jiaotong University
@Zhenhua_Hunan
微信公众号Funded by:
Shanghai Pujiang Program (2020)
National Natural Science Foundation of China海外优青(2021)
National Key R&D Program of China(2022)
沪交ICP备20210341