How plants fine tune their natural chemical defenses

Courtesy EurekAlert! - Chemistry, Physics and Materials Sciences  Sat, 09/06/2008 - 23:00

(Salk Institute) Even closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, each set uniquely adapted to the individual plant's specific habitat.

Comparing antifungals produced by tobacco and henbane, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture.

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