Tapping the biological and chemical diversity of Canada's plants: An interdisciplinary approach

植物代谢物对全球生态系统和经济至关重要。在生物学上，它们维持食物链，介导种间的相互作用，并塑造共同进化的关系。从经济上讲，人类已经利用植物化学用于食品、医药、杀虫剂、生物燃料和其他工业或文化目的。在加拿大，尽管有着无与伦比的北方和北极生物多样性，独特的南方生态系统和丰富的土著传统知识，但我们的植物仍然令人惊讶地未被科学探索和开发。此外，虽然植物的生态学和人类利用从根本上通过植物化学产生的生物化学效应联系在一起，但这两种观点很少被整合和探索，以提供对彼此的洞察力。 我提出的计划针对的是具有经济重要性的植物群体，这些植物具有丰富但未经研究的原生生物多样性。由于加拿大有太多的植物进行调查，我们通过整合植物进化和生态学，植物化学和药理学以及民族植物学（植物与人之间的关系）的观点来确定科学和社会利益的物种和化学物质。 在植物生态学和可持续资源开发的总体主题下，我们的研究旨在了解植物如何，何时以及为什么产生生物活性物质，并确定有前途的植物物种作为功能性食品，天然保健品（NHPs），生物制药或害虫和生物控制剂。 随着建立一个世界一流的研究和培训计划的长期目标，我们的桥梁基础科学支持经济机会和创新产品以及健全的公共政策，计划和教育，有利于加拿大社区，行业和生态系统的真实的世界应用。为了实现这一目标，我们使用不同类型的研究（实验室，温室，实地和社区为基础的）研究，并与工业，政府和第一民族和因纽特人社区合作。研究我们国家独特的植物多样性和土著传统知识，我的计划目前集中在三组植物：向日葵家族（菊科），蓝莓家族（杜鹃花科），更普遍的是，可以食用但可能有毒的植物。通过我们的研究，我们将确定植物和新化合物作为新产品的潜在开发，为种植和收获高价值作物提供最佳实践，以优化质量和安全性，并改善土著社区获得高质量粮食资源的机会。提供热情的年轻科学家培训和经验，在不同的科学领域，先进的技术设备，并与私营和公共部门的合作伙伴，我的计划也将有助于提供下一代的领导者有价值的专业知识和专业网络。

Plant metabolites are vital to global ecosystems and economies. Ecologically, they sustain food chains, mediate interspecific interactions, and shape co-evolutionary relationships. Economically, humans have harnessed plant chemistry for food, medicine, pesticides, biofuels and other industrial or cultural purposes. In Canada, despite unsurpassed boreal and arctic biodiversity, distinct southern ecosystems and rich indigenous traditional knowledge, our plants remain surprisingly unexplored and underdeveloped by science. Moreover, while the ecology and human uses of plants are fundamentally linked through the biochemical effects generated by plant chemistry, the two perspectives are seldom integrated and explored to provide insight on one another. My proposed program targets groups of plants that are economically important with rich yet unstudied native biodiversity. Because Canada has too many plants to investigate, we identify species and chemicals of scientific and societal interest by integrating perspectives in plant evolution and ecology, plant chemistry and pharmacology, and ethnobotany (the relationship between plants and people). Under overarching themes of plant ecology and sustainable resource development, our research aims to understand how, when and why plants produce biologically active substances and to identify promising plant species for development as functional foods, natural health products (NHPs), biopharmaceuticals or pest and biological control agents. With the long-term goal of establishing a world-class research and training program, we bridge basic science to real world applications that support economic opportunity and innovative products as well as sound public policy, programs and education that benefit Canadian communities, industries, and ecosystems. To achieve this goal, we use different types of research (laboratory, greenhouse, field and community-based) research and collaborate with industry, government and First Nations and Inuit communities. Studying our nation's unique plant diversity and indigenous traditional knowledge, my program currently focuses on three groups of plant: the sunflower family (Asteraceae), the blueberry family (Ericaceae) and, more generally, plants that could be edible but may be toxic. Through our research, we will identify plants and new compounds for potential development as new products, inform best practices for cultivating and harvesting high-value crops for optimized quality and safety, and improve access to high quality food resources in indigenous communities. Offering enthusiastic young scientists training and experience in different scientific fields, on advanced technical equipment, and with private and public sector partners, my program will also help provide the next generation of leaders with valuable expertise and professional networks.