Insects and other arthropods make up over half of all the described species on earth. Some are important as disease vectors (i.e., tsetse fly, anopheles mosquitoes, triatomine bugs, ticks ...), while many others have developed into agricultural, forest, and household pests. Chemistry plays a key role in the phyletic dominance of arthropods on earth; it is the basis for the interactions of insects with plants, with their conspecifics, with animal hosts, and with predators. The chief goal of this project is to elucidate the chemistry underlying these interactions. Insects and plants have been co-evolving for hundreds of millions of years, and the chemical relationships between these groups are rich and varied. Our work will also extend to plants in those instances where the utilization of plants toxins as insect defensive compounds and pheromone precursors seem to be important. In those instances where an insect species is dependent on plants as a source of defensive compounds, pheromones, or their precursors, the natural products chemistry of the relevant plant species will be studied. The synthesis of new insect-derived compounds showing biological activity will be an important facet of this program. This is an essential aspect of arthropod chemical research, since synthesis serves not only to confirm"""""""" structures and stereochemistry, but also supplies material in sufficient quantity for bioassays. The overall objectives of this program are: (1) to increase our understanding of natural chemical defense and communication, (2) to provide the basis for new insect control techniques which may be applicable to disease vectors of other pests, and (3) to discover new chemistry which may be useful in drug and/or agrochemical development.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM053830-28
Application #
6386249
Study Section
Bio-Organic and Natural Products Chemistry Study Section (BNP)
Program Officer
Schwab, John M
Project Start
1976-09-01
Project End
2002-03-31
Budget Start
2001-04-01
Budget End
2002-03-31
Support Year
28
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$335,955
Indirect Cost
Name
Cornell University
Department
Chemistry
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Ithaca
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
14850
Clark, Valerie C; Harinantenaina, Liva; Zeller, Martin et al. (2012) An endogenous bile acid and dietary sucrose from skin secretions of alkaloid-sequestering poison frogs. J Nat Prod 75:473-8
Caspers, Barbara A; Schroeder, Frank C; Franke, Stephan et al. (2011) Scents of adolescence: the maturation of the olfactory phenotype in a free-ranging mammal. PLoS One 6:e21162
Schroeder, Frank C; Taggi, Andrew E; Gronquist, Matthew et al. (2008) NMR-spectroscopic screening of spider venom reveals sulfated nucleosides as major components for the brown recluse and related species. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:14283-7
Kim, Jae Hak; Lee, Byong Won; Schroeder, Frank C et al. (2008) Identification of indole glucosinolate breakdown products with antifeedant effects on Myzus persicae (green peach aphid). Plant J 54:1015-26
Bertin, Cecile; Weston, Leslie A; Huang, Tengfang et al. (2007) Grass roots chemistry: meta-tyrosine, an herbicidal nonprotein amino acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:16964-9
Schroeder, Frank C; del Campo, Marta L; Grant, Jacqualine B et al. (2006) Pinoresinol: A lignol of plant origin serving for defense in a caterpillar. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:15497-501
Gronquist, Matthew; Meinwald, Jerrold; Eisner, Thomas et al. (2005) Exploring uncharted terrain in nature's structure space using capillary NMR spectroscopy: 13 steroids from 50 fireflies. J Am Chem Soc 127:10810-1
Schroeder, Frank C; Weibel, Douglas B; Meinwald, Jerrold (2004) Chiral silylation reagents: determining configuration via NMR-spectroscopic coanalysis. Org Lett 6:3019-22
Attygalle, Athula B; Wu, Xiaogang; Ruzicka, Josef et al. (2004) Defensive chemicals of two species of Trachypachus Motschulski. J Chem Ecol 30:577-88
Teplitski, Max; Eberhard, Anatol; Gronquist, Matthew R et al. (2003) Chemical identification of N-acyl homoserine lactone quorum-sensing signals produced by Sinorhizobium meliloti strains in defined medium. Arch Microbiol 180:494-7

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