A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instrument and associated rotary evaporator for small molecule and natural product analyses

这笔赠款将用于购买两件设备：(1)旋转蒸发器和(2)高效液相色谱（HPLC）仪器。这些仪器将成为一个研究项目的关键组成部分，该项目专注于引起马铃薯普通痂的植物致病性链霉菌细菌，这是加拿大一种重要的经济植物疾病。马铃薯结痂的特征是在马铃薯块茎表面形成凸起的软木状病变。这些病害影响马铃薯作物的适销性，给马铃薯种植者造成重大经济损失。该基金资助的设备将用于鉴定、量化和纯化由最具特征的引起疥疮的病原体——疥疮链霉菌（Streptomyces scabies）产生的天然产物，这些产物有助于这种有机体的致病特性。这项研究的目的是更好地了解这些天然产物是如何由疥疮产生的，它们在疾病发展中的作用，以及促进分子合成的环境条件。本研究结果将进一步阐明疥疮天然产物在疥疮疾病发展中的重要性，并为制定更有效的疥疮管理策略提供应用。另一个将受益于这种设备的研究项目是一个专注于微生物抗生素生产和新药发现的项目。这项研究计划旨在更好地了解抗生素是如何由土壤微生物产生的，以便制定策略，以提高其商业目的的生产。此外，它的目的是表征可能作为治疗人类疾病的药物有用的新的微生物天然产物。所要求的设备对另外两个研究项目也很重要，其中一个研究小信号分子在细菌病毒介导的遗传交换中的作用，另一个研究植物对胁迫的反应。因此，由这项拨款资助的仪器将支持应用于农业、生物技术和医学的研究项目，这些项目也有助于科学知识的进步。

This grant will be used to purchase two pieces of equipment: (1) a rotary evaporator, and (2) a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) instrument. These instruments will be critical components of a research program focusing on plant pathogenic Streptomyces bacteria that cause potato common scab, which is an economically-important plant disease in Canada. Potato scab is characterized by raised corky-like lesions that form on the surface of potato tubers. These lesions affect the marketability of the potato crop leading to significant economic losses for potato growers. The equipment funded by this grant will be used to identify, quantify and purify natural products that are produced by the best characterized scab-causing pathogen, Streptomyces scabies, and which contribute to the pathogenic character of this organism. The goal of this research is to better understand how these natural products are produced by S. scabies, how they function in disease development, and the environmental conditions that promote the synthesis of the molecules. The results of this research will shed further light on the importance of S. scabies natural products in scab disease development, which has applications for the development of more effective scab management strategies. Another research program that will benefit from the use of this equipment is one that focuses on microbial antibiotic production and new drug discovery. This research program aims to better understand how antibiotics are produced by soil microorganisms so that strategies can be designed to enhance their production for commercial purposes. Furthermore, it aims to characterize new microbial natural products that may be useful as drugs for the treatment of human diseases. The equipment requested will also be important for two additional research programs, one of which studies the involvement of small signaling molecules in virus-mediated genetic exchange in bacteria, and the other which characterizes plant responses to stress. Thus, the instruments funded by this grant will support research programs that have applications to agriculture, biotechnology and medicine, and which also contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge.