Alkaloids of Importance in Plant-Insect Interactions

这项研究将集中在植物的半寄生物种 玄参科。它会强调生物碱， 环烯醚萜苷化学的植物，如何这些 代谢物可能会影响食草昆虫， 植物，以及一些分离的环烯醚萜苷如何 在实验室中用作手性配体。植物 拟研究的物种寄生在寄主植物的根部 含有生物碱这些生物碱被转移到 寄生虫本身也可能影响食草昆虫。 植食性寄生虫对生物碱的利用 将研究防御机制以及寄生虫的特异性 对于某些寄主植物和生物碱从寄主的运输 进入寄生虫体内因为食草昆虫 含生物碱和环烯醚萜植物螯合和/或 使化合物代谢，研究化学变化 在昆虫中将产生生物碱和环烯醚萜类化合物的代谢。 环烯醚萜苷类化合物的结构与其活性的关系 将研究转化为吡啶生物碱的难易程度 因为在某些植物中环烯醚萜会转化为吡啶 单萜生物碱，但吡啶单萜预期从 在植物中发现的几种高浓度环烯醚萜类化合物 从未被孤立。最后，由于环烯醚萜很容易 可从一些工厂获得数克的数量， 研究并可在一锅中以高产率转化 手性五取代环戊烷反应的研究 将这些产品转化为 对映体纯的碳环核苷。 %%% 凭借这一奖项，化学合成有机计划 该部门将支持弗兰克·R.施特米茨 科罗拉多州立大学化学系。这 研究将集中在植物的半寄生物种上 玄参科，其成员寄生在 含有生物碱的寄主植物的根。这些生物碱 转移到寄生虫体内， 食草昆虫生物碱的利用 寄生虫作为食草动物的防御将被研究， 寄生虫对某些寄主植物的特异性， 生物碱从宿主转运到寄生虫体内。这些 后两项研究对 生物多样性问题正在成为危机的比例， 地球上的雨林正受到威胁， 保护植物物种的基因库可能还不够 如果次级代谢物组成也依赖于宿主 物种

This research will focus on hemiparasitic species of the plant family Scrophulariaceae. It will emphasize the alkaloid and iridoid glycoside chemistry of the plants, how these metabolites may affect insect herbivores whose larvae consume the plants, and how some of the isolated iridoid glycosides can be utilized in the laboratory as chiral synthons. The plant species to be studied are parasitic on the roots of host plants which contain alkaloids. These alkaloids are transferred into the parasites and may themselves affect insect herbivores. Utilization of the alkaloids by the parasites as herbivore defenses will be studied as will specificity of the parasites for certain host plants and alkaloid transport from the host into the parasite. Since insect herbivores which utilize alkaloid- and iridoid-containing plants sequester and /or metabolize the compounds, a study of chemical transformations in insect metabolism of alkaloids and iridoids will be made. Relationships between iridoid glycoside structures and their ease of conversion to pyridine alkaloids will be investigated because, in some plants, iridoids are converted to pyridine monoterpene alkaloids, but pyridine monoterpenes expected from several iridoids found in very high plant concentration have never been isolated. Finally, since iridoids are readily available in multigram quantities from some of the plants under investigation and can be converted in high yield in a one-pot reaction to chiral, pentasubstituted cyclopentanes, a study will be carried out to convert these products to enantiomerically-pure carbocyclic nucleosides. %%% With this award the Synthetic Organic Program of the Chemistry Division will support the research of Dr. Frank R. Stermitz of the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University. This research will focus on hemiparasitic species of the plant family Scrophularicaeae whose members are parasitic on the roots of host plants which contain alkaloids. These alkaloids are transferred into the parasites and may themselves affect insect herbivores. Utilization of the alkaloids by the parasites as herbivore defenses will be studied as will specificity of the parasites for certain host plants and alkaloid transport from the host into the parasites. These latter two studies have important implications for the biodiversity question that is becoming of crisis proportions as the earth's rainforests are being threatened because simply preserving the genetic pool of plant species may not be enough if secondary metabolite composition is also dependant upon host species.