Course “Assays for biological activities of secondary metabolites”
The IRTG 2172 Plant Responses to Critical Threats offers a course “Assays for biological activities of secondary metabolites”.
Course description:
Structural diversity of secondary metabolites attracted the attention of natural product chemists for decades but the question why these metabolites exist has seldom been addressed. Establishing fitness effects on ecologically relevant interaction partner of the producer is the first step towards unraveling ecological functions of secondary metabolites. Participants of the course will become acquainted with assays covering a wide range of organisms. Survival of brine shrimp Artermia salina and nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in media spiked with purified metabolites will be monitored in assays of toxicity to crustaceans and worms. Leaf area, number of fronds and chlorophyll content of Lemna minor will reveal phytotoxic effects. Allelopathic potential of semivolatile metabolites will be assessed based on their effect on the germination and growth suppression in Raphanus sativus. The effect of ingested metabolites on the fitness of mealworm larvae will be used as a measure of their toxicity to hexapodes. Apart from testing ecological hypotheses, brine shrimp and nematode assays have been used by the industry in pre-screens of toxicity to animals before cell cultures and rodent assays are deployed. Lemna assays are still used in screens for herbicide leads.
Date: May 8th, 9th and 15th, 2018
Place: Course room in Grisebachstraße 6, No. 0.124 (ground floor, which is one level above the entrance
Registration until April 15th at Judith Wassiltschenko, protect@uni-goettingen.de