Guest Editors
Oishika Panda
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA
Oishika Panda is a postdoctoral research scholar at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, California. Her research focuses on ketone bodies, NAD pathway metabolites, and related small molecule signaling in humans. Dr. Panda earned her BSc (2010) and MSc (2012) degrees in Chemistry from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, respectively. She became interested in small molecule biosynthesis and signaling in bacteria and nematodes during her graduate studies at Cornell University, New York, USA, where she earned her PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology in 2017. As a trained analytical chemist, she is interested in developing high-throughput methods to analyze a variety of small molecules using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS), which she uses to study metabolite signaling in different mammalian tissues and sub-cellular compartments both under various dietary and diseased conditions, and in response to different treatments.
Alex Artyukhin
State University of New York; Department of Chemistry in the College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Dr. Artyukhin is an assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry in the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York. He is interested in structures, biosynthesis, and functions of animal natural products. Alex received his PhD from University of California Davis and did postdoctoral work on C elegans starvation responses with Leon Avery and Frank Schroeder.
Murli Manohar
Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Dr. Murli Manohar is a Senior Research Associate in the Boyce Thompson Institute at the Cornell University, and Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Ascribe Bioscience Inc. in Ithaca, NY. His research investigates the mechanism plants use to sense and communicate with their environment, with a specific focus on dissecting the mechanisms of natural small-molecules mediated plant-pathogen interactions. His recent research has uncovered a novel evolutionary conserved chemotropic signaling pathway mediated by editing and exchange of natural metabolites between plants and their pathogens. The end-goal is to establish the viability of natural small molecules as crop protectants, to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture by reducing the use of potentially harmful pesticides, and enhancing food security worldwide. Methods commonly used in his research including LC-MS, multi-omics, and other biochemical approaches for identifying new metabolites and their interaction with macromolecules involved in signaling cascades. Dr. Manohar received his Ph.D. from the Molecular and Environmental Plant Science program at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX in 2012. During his graduate studies, his research focused on elucidating structural-functional relationships of calcium transporters to better understand Ca2+ signaling pathways.
Collection Overview
The ability to sense and respond to environmental cues is critical to the survival of organisms in the ecosystem. Chemical signaling is the primordial means of communication and is highly conserved throughout evolution, from quorum sensing in bacteria, to mammalian sex pheromones. The universality of this chemical language allows it to transcend within or between species, and even cross the kingdom boundaries; something that no other communication modality can achieve. However, the nature of chemical signals, as well as underlying mechanisms of how an organism encodes and decodes these chemical messages, remains largely unexplored.
Myriad examples of chemical communication exist in nature. Insects have long been known to rely on chemical cues for mating. Many mammalian species mark their territories and signal estrus using gland secretions and excreta. Microbes inhabiting the human body mediate their interactions using small molecules, yet the extent to which their metabolomes are interwoven with ours, and how it affects our daily lives remain underappreciated. The untapped potential of small molecules signals can be harnessed to rewire metabolic processes to address ever-growing challenges in human and plant health.
In this series, we would like to highlight methods used for studying various aspects of chemical communication across species, ranging from identification of molecules and elucidation of biosynthetic pathways, to studying their bioactivity and underlying perception mechanisms. Examples include, but are not limited to: small molecule mediated signaling, regulation, and their potential applications; host-pathogen and host-microbiome interactions; and high-throughput screening to identify novel therapeutic targets and pheromones.
Articles
Abstracts
Cuticular chemical ontogeny in workers of a swarm-founding wasp species by using two different extraction techniques
FABIO NASCIMENTO*1
1Universidade de São Paulo