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

随着气候变化导致肠道寄生虫的空间分布增加，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。控制方法有限，对化疗的广泛耐药和可获得的商业疫苗严重缺乏，迫切需要新的控制方法来解决这一问题。植物特化代谢物（psm）已被研究作为解决这一问题的潜在方案，其固有的驱虫特性和将农业饲料整合到可持续农业中作为辅助寄生虫管理和一般牲畜健康的补充或自然治疗的诱人前景。然而，问题源于表达水平，如果太高可能对动物健康产生不利影响，因此必须获得这些分子的平衡，如果你对控制它们调节的生物相互作用一无所知，这是很困难的。从化学角度来看这些分子可以让我们更深入地了解它们在不同环境刺激下的表达（例如，植物是由食草动物自然喂养还是在受保护的环境中生长，植物生长的地理位置等）。利用体外生物测定作为对寄生虫控制重要的植物化学物质表达的基础，该项目旨在引入尖端的信息技术，如高效液相色谱，以开发牧草提取物（包括植物、树木和真菌）的功能化学特征，从而量化其生物活性在生物环境中的相关性。考虑到这一点，本研究的目标是……对未知的植物化学物质进行确定的体外生物测定，并量化它们的驱虫功效和营养价值。使用质谱法创建化学组合，以比较它们的益处。评估和比较这些概况，目的是制定将这些利益纳入未来农业的新策略。

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.