New Discovery on Plant Evolution Could Lead to Lifesaving Medicine
COS/BioE Professor Jing-Ke Weng and his research team traced the evolutionary history of Canadian moonseed and discovered its potential for developing new lifesaving drugs.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cody Mello-Klein. Main photo: “The work we took here is essentially molecular archaeology,” says Jing-Ke Weng, Northeastern professor of chemistry, chemical biology, bioengineering and bioengineering, of his team’s work. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.
Scientists make major breakthrough that rewrites the understanding of plant evolution
A new discovery from researchers at Northeastern University has uncovered previously unknown aspects of plant evolution, with major implications for creating new lifesaving drugs.
The researchers’ breakthrough traced, for the first time, the genetic and molecular path a particular plant, Canadian moonseed, took to be able to perform a chemical reaction that was previously thought impossible for a plant to do naturally: adding a chlorine atom to a molecule. The findings, recently published in Science Advances, point to opportunities for creating new, more efficient methods of developing pharmaceuticals.
The work provides closure on “a molecular detective story millions of years in the making,” says Jing-Ke Weng, a professor of chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering at Northeastern whose Weng Lab led this project.
“To understand what has happened in the past that leads to the current state of things in terms of cultures, countries and many other things, we rely on archaeology,” Weng says. “The work we took here is essentially molecular archaeology.”
At the heart of the researchers’ work is an enzyme called dechloroacutumine halogenase, or DAH, which helps moonseed produce acutumine, a compound that allows the plant to ward off predators and disease.
“The compound has been found to [have] some really interesting medicinal properties,” Weng says. “It has selective cancer-killing activity towards leukemia cells, and some other studies indicate it may have applications in neuroscience regulating gaba receptors for memory loss.”
As its name implies, DAH includes a halogen atom, in this case chlorine, which is far from normal for a plant. The ability for a plant to add chlorine to an organic molecule is exceptionally rare and valuable: Chlorine is often used to boost the potency and stability of drugs and agrochemicals.
For Weng and his team, they had their central mystery: How exactly does a plant evolve the ability to do the seemingly impossible and produce a halogenated compound like this in the first place? The answer to that question could help scientists use evolution as a model for creating their own designer enzymes, Weng says
Read full story at Northeastern Global News