Analysis of single plant cells provides insights into natural product biosynthesis

Single-cell multi-omics reveals that cell types are differentially involved in the production and accumulation of medically relevant plant compounds

19-May-2023 - In a new study published in Nature Chemical Biology, an international team of researchers from the University of Georgia, USA, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, presents a promising strategy for elucidating metabolic pathways for plant compounds of medicinal ...

Case solved: the biosynthesis of strychnine elucidated

New possibilities for the production of previously unknown plant natural products using "metabolic engineering" approaches

08-Jul-2022 - A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena disclosed the complete biosynthetic pathway for the formation of strychnine in the plant species Strychnos nux-vomica (poison nut). The researchers identified all genes involved in the biosynthesis of strychnine and other ...

'Corrective glass' for mass spectrometry imaging

Visualizing the distribution of chemical substances on non-flat samples

10-Feb-2017 - The chemical analysis of biological tissues with three-dimensional shapes has been a major problem so far. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now improved mass spectrometry imaging in such a way that the distribution of molecules can also be ...

The architecture of odor perception

Olfactory glomeruli have a unique structure

22-Sep-2016 - Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now quantified and mapped the functional units of the olfactory center in the brains of vinegar flies responsible for the perception of odors. They found out that the so-called olfactory glomeruli in the antennal ...

Cooperating bacteria isolate cheaters

10-Dec-2015 - Bacteria, which reciprocally exchange amino acids, stabilize their partnership on two-dimensional surfaces and limit the access of non-cooperating bacteria to the exchanged nutrients. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena have ...

A sex pheromone assembly line in Manduca sexta

19-Oct-2015 - Scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague, Czech Republic, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, studied the pheromone chemistry of moths and discovered a new evolutionary mechanism: A single amino acid residue in desaturases of ...

Microbe-mediated adaptation to a novel diet

15-Jun-2015 - Scientists of the Max Planck Research Group Insect Symbiosis and the Experimental Ecology and Evolution Group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology found that acquiring a group of bacterial symbionts that are localized in the gut enabled firebugs to successfully exploit a food source ...

Captive Breeding for Thousands of Years Has Impaired Olfactory Functions

22-Nov-2013 - Domesticated silkmoths Bombyx mori have a much more limited perception of environmental odors compared to their wild relatives. The extremely sensitive olfactory detection of pheromones in males eager to mate, however, remains unaltered. A new study on silkmoths revealed that the insects’ ability ...

Female moths use olfactory signals to choose the best egg-laying sites

Small changes in the composition of green leaf volatiles induced by herbivory guide ovipositing female moths to unattacked plants

06-Jun-2013 - Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany, discovered that the ability of Manduca sexta moths to recognize changes in the profile of volatile compounds released by plants being attacked by Manduca caterpillars allows them to lay their eggs on plants that are less ...

Transistor in the fly antenna

Insect odorant receptors regulate their own sensitivity

20-Mar-2013 - Highly developed antennae containing different types of olfactory receptors allow insects to use minute amounts of odors for orientation towards resources like food, oviposition sites or mates. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now used mutant ...