Is Nibbled, Riddled and Rotten Good for Health? Biodiverse Stimulation of Antiparasitic Chemical Production by Plants and Fungi

肠道寄生虫引起的疾病是当前农业食品工业面临的最大问题之一，气候变化增加了寄生虫的空间分布。防治选择有限，对化疗的广泛耐药性，以及严重缺乏可用的商业疫苗，迫切需要新的防治方法来解决这一问题。植物专门化代谢物(PSM)因其固有的驱虫特性以及将农业牧草作为补充或自然治疗纳入可持续农业的诱人前景而被研究为这一问题的潜在解决方案，以帮助寄生虫管理和一般牲畜健康。然而，问题源于表达水平，如果表达水平过高可能会对动物健康产生不利影响，因此必须获得这些分子的平衡，如果你对控制它们的生物相互作用一无所知，这是很困难的。对这些分子引入化学观点将有助于更深入地了解它们在不同环境刺激下的表达(即植物是否天然地以草食动物为食，而不是生长在受保护的环境中，植物生长的地理位置等)。利用体外生物测定作为表达对寄生虫控制重要的植物化学物质的基础，该项目旨在引入尖端信息学技术，如高效液相色谱法，以开发饲料提取物(包括植物、树木和真菌)的功能化学特征，从而量化其在生物环境中的生物活性的相关性。对未知的植物化学物质进行确定性的体外生物测定，并量化其驱虫效果和营养效益。使用质谱仪创建化学组合，以比较它们的益处。评估和比较这些概况，目的是制定新的战略，将这些好处整合到未来的农业中。

Disease caused by intestinal parasites is one of the biggest issues currently facing agricultural food industry with climate change increasing the spatial distribution of parasites. Control options are limited widespread resistance to chemotherapies and a significant lack of commercial vaccines available new control methods are desperately needed to solve this issue. Plant Specialised Metabolites (PSMs) have been studied as a potential solution for this issue, with their inherent anthelmintic properties and the alluring promise of integrating agricultural forage into sustainable farming as either a supplement or natural treatment to assist in parasite management and general livestock health. However, issues stem from the level of expression which if too high could have adverse effects on animal health, therefore a balance of these molecules must be obtained which is difficult if you know nothing about the biotic interactions that govern their regulation. Bringing in a chemical perspective on these molecules would allow for a deeper understanding of their expression under different environmental stimuli (i.e. whether the plant is naturally fed upon by herbivores vs grown in a protected environment, geographical location of where the plant is grown, etc.). Using in vitro bioassays as a basis for the expression of phytochemicals important for parasite control this project aims to bring cutting-edge informatic technologies such as HPLC in order to develop functional chemical characterisations of forage extracts (including plants, trees and fungi) and thereby quantify the relevance of their bioactivity within a biotic environment.With this in mind the goals of this research would be to...1. Perform deterministic in vitro bioassays on yet as unknown profiles of phytochemicals and quantify their anthelmintic efficacy and nutraceutical benefits.2. Using mass spectrometry create chemical portfolios for comparisons of their benefits.3. Evaluate and compare these profiles with the aim of developing novel strategies of integrating these benefits into future farming.