Achievement

High-throughput production and screening of small molecules with biological activity in plant, fungal and insect-based assays. Fellows actively screen compound libraries purchased with NSF-IGERT funds. Faculty Cutler (biologist) and Pirrug (organic chemist) added 12,000 fluorescent compounds produced by click chemistry to our libraries. Fellows designed assays for identification of compounds with biological activity. 2008/09 screens: Brown (46,000 cmpds; tobacco pollen germination), Defries (12,000 cmpds; yeast and/or seedling growth inhibition), Jamin/international visitor (ethylene signaling), Dinh/REU student (12,000 cpmds; transcriptional gene silencing inhibitors), Salus (50,000 cmpds; activators of defense responses), Wu (transcription factor interaction inhibitors), Schacht (2,000 cmpds; G-protein signaling inhibitors). Synergy in the use of bioactive compounds increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of the chemical genomics approach by IGERT fellows.