Today's Message
Posted: Monday, March 10, 2025"Medicinal Plants: Biosynthesis and Ecology of Plant Natural Products"
Please join the Biology Department and the Great Lakes Center for the seminar “Medicinal Plants: Biosynthesis and Ecology of Plant Natural Products.”, presented by Dr. Zhen Wang today at 3:00 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center 214. Attendees are welcome to arrive at 2:30 p.m. to enjoy coffee and cookies leading up to the seminar.
Research Seminar Abstract: Plants synthesize a myriad of specialized metabolites to cope with stresses and improve fitness. Some of these metabolites are widely used as medicines. Digoxin produced in foxglove plants essential for treating heart failure and atrial arrhythmia. It belongs to a family of compounds called cardenolides with diverse therapeutic applications. Cardenolides are also found in monarch butterflies which migrate from US to central Mexico each year. Despite the prominence of cardenolides in medicine and ecology, how they are synthesized in plants remains unknown. My lab has uncovered key genes responsible for cardenolide biosynthesis in foxglove plants, which paved the way for metabolic engineering to reconstitute digoxin biosynthesis in heterologous hosts.
