REU: Consequences of Leaf Lifetime for Photosynthetic Physiology, Secondary Metabolism, and Anatomy in Tropical Plants

叶片寿命与叶片生理及次生代谢物产生之间的关系是一个严重缺乏信息的领域。这一建议通过各种假设和严格的实验设计，试图更好地理解这些关系，并提供关于叶片寿命、叶片生理和次生代谢物产生之间相互作用的基线数据。从这项研究中获得的信息将有助于理解叶片寿命不同的植物如何保护这些重要的光合作用组织免受食草动物和病原体的侵袭。这些信息将有助于处理作物和森林系统光合作用的理论考虑，并有助于描述自然群落中植物物种的多酚防御是如何进化的。此外，将确定可能未知的化合物或结构，并可能被证明是有用的天然杀虫剂。例如，根据最初提案中提交的初步数据，我们筛选的15种已知酚类化合物中没有一种存在于巴拿马的植物中。

The relationship between leaf longevity and the physiology and secondary metabolite production among leaves varying in longevity is an area severely lacking in information. This proposal, through various hypotheses and rigorous experimental designs, seeks to better understand these relationships and to provide baseline data about the interactions between leaf longevity, leaf physiology, and secondary metabolite production. Information gained from this study will be useful in understanding how plants with leaves of varying longevity may defend these important photosynthetic tissues against herbivores and pathogens. Such information would be useful in theoretical considerations dealing with photosynthesis of crop and forest systems, and in describing how the polyphenolic defenses of plant species in natural communities have evolved. Furthermore, compounds or structures will be identified that may not be known and may prove useful as natural insecticides. For example, on the basis of preliminary data submitted in the original proposal, none of the 15 known phenolic compounds for which we screened tissue were present in the plants from Panama.