A collaboration between scientists at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and the University of North Texas (UNT) is centered on a type of plant lipid that may hold valuable information about plant development and responses of plants to environmental stresses.

Drs. Elison Blancaflor, associate professor at the Noble Foundation, and Kent Chapman, professor of biochemistry at UNT, are focused on a group of lipids known as N-acylethanolamines (NAEs). In humans and animals, NAEs are molecules that regulate a growing list of important functions including communication in the brain, appetite, sleep, immune responses and pain.

NAE interactions have been thoroughly explored in humans and animals. However, despite the wide distribution of NAEs in many plant species, very little is known about the role of these molecules within plants.

Blancaflor and Chapman believe NAEs may impact certain aspects of plant development, such as organization of cells, hormone signaling and response to drought. Research collaborations with the group of Kiran Mysore, Ph.D., associate professor at the Noble Foundation, also implicate NAEs in plant interactions with disease-causing bacteria.

"There has been very little research done on plant NAEs," Blancaflor said. "It holds the potential to reveal some basic understanding of how plants grow and defend themselves against pathogens. If we can better grasp these fundamental processes, then we may be able to improve plant development and defense, both vital factors to improving agriculture."

Blancaflor and Chapman began the study on the biochemistry of NAEs in plants three years ago with funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) biosciences program. The pair recently received another $495,000 grant from the DOE to fund three additional years. The Noble Foundation will receive almost $200,000 to continue Blancaflor's portion of the research.

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Photo:

Elison Blancaflor, Ph.D.

08-042

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News Release Issued: October 23, 2008

For media inquiries concerning the Noble Foundation, please contact J. Adam Calaway, Director of Public Relations, at 580.224.6209 or by email at jacalaway@noble.org.

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc. (www.noble.org), headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a nonprofit organization conducting agricultural, forage improvement and plant biology research; assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs; and providing grants to nonprofit charitable, educational and health organizations.