Daniel Kliebenstein
University of California-Davis, CA·Plant Science & Agriculture
Much of the sharp taste of broccoli, capers and wasabi comes from glucosinolates. These plant chemicals help plants fight off pests, diseases and plant-eating animals.
- Fields
Plant Science & Agriculture
Genetics
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
glucosinolates
specialized metabolites
secondary metabolism
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2030
What they work on
- Map the enzyme genes that build the glucosinolate core structure across the Brassicales, the plant order that includes broccoli, capers and wasabi, using phylogenetic analysis of sequenced and annotated genomes.
- Test genes at points on the evolutionary tree where new enzyme activities appear, to learn how they create chemical and functional diversity in glucosinolates.
- Build models that predict how genetic variation and gene function produce chemical diversity in plant specialized metabolites.
More about the research
They also contribute to flavor and health benefits. Glucosinolates belong to a larger group called specialized metabolites, compounds that plants build on a shared core structure and then decorate with chemical changes. Those changes give each plant its own chemical toolkit. How genes create this chemical diversity across plant species is still poorly understood.
Why it matters
Specialized metabolites shape the flavor, aroma, nutrition and medicinal value of crops, and help plants resist pests and stress. Understanding how genes create glucosinolate diversity could support future engineering of plants that make new useful chemicals. This could help crop breeders and the bioeconomy, and could improve vegetables such as broccoli and wasabi.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Jonathan Myers
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Ecology & Evolution
Determine how leaf secondary chemistry, the defense compounds that are not needed for basic growth, shapes local interactions among neighboring trees, by combining leaf metabolomics with growth and survival data from mapped forest plots.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
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