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BOB HIRSHON (host):
Life-saving compounds from plants. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
The fresh scent of lemons or newly cut grass comes from terpenes—chemicals plants produce mostly to repel plant-eating insects. Purdue biochemist Natalia Dudareva explains that terpenes are the active compounds in many important drugs, like the cancer-fighting medicine Taxol. But plants can be frustratingly frugal when it comes to producing them.
NATALIA DUDAREVA (Purdue):
If we want to get a lot of important compounds for pharmaceuticals, we need to have relatively high level of these compounds in plants. But plants produce it very often in very small amount.
HIRSHON:
Now, in the journal Nature Plants, Dudareva and her colleagues report finding the genetic switch and other mechanisms that turn terpene production on and off. The work could help researchers discover life-saving compounds, and lead to new ways to breed or engineer plants to produce enough of them. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.
Story by Bob Hirshon