Research looks at drug potential of plants

U.S. researchers say they have developed new data on the ways genes influence how plants produce medicinally important compounds. Scientists at Purdue University and eight other institutions have used a $6 million initiative from the National Institutes of Health to study how the genes of plants contribute to production of pharmacologically active compounds. Purdue professor of horticulture and landscape architecture Natalia Dudareva was one of the researchers working to develop a collection of data that would aid in understanding how plants make chemicals, a process called biosynthesis. "This grant allowed for the work of scientists from a number of different universities, with many different areas of expertise," Dudareva said in a Purdue release Thursday. "We hope the discovery of plant genes leads to new and more effective drugs." The knowledge gained in the research could ultimately make it possible to engineer plants to produce larger quantities of medicinally useful compounds, researchers said. "This work offers a valuable data resource for understanding the genes, enzymes and complex processes responsible for the biosynthesis of important plant-derived drugs," Warren Jones, at NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, said. "The collaborative effort should greatly contribute to our ability to understand and exploit the rich biochemistry found in plants."