Floral Anti-Senescence for the Ethylene Receptor Progress Reports - June 2002
ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT
JUNE 2002
Project Title: Floral
Anti-senescence Agents for the Ethylene Receptor
Researcher/Institution Information:
Michael Pirrung, Duke University, Box 90317, Durham, North
Carolina, 27708, Phone: 919-681-3482 Fax: 919-660-1591 E-mail: pirrung@chem.duke.edu
Anthony Bleecker, University of Wisconsin, Department of
Botany, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706 Phone: 608-262-4009 Fax:
608-262-7509 E-mail: bleecker@facstaff.wisc.edu
Industry Needs Addressed:
The benefit to the floral industry sought in this proposal is
increasing the vase life, transportability, and quality/performance of cut
flowers, and will result primarily from the third year’s research results. All
sectors of the industry will benefit from reduced perishability of their
products, but particularly, the opportunities for direct marketing of floral
products through electronic commerce will be enhanced by increased
transportability at lower cost and with higher quality.
Research Conducted:
Two novel MCP analogues bearing short carbon chains and
hydroxyl groups were designed to be more stable and less volatile than MCP.
Brief synthetic approaches to each were planned, and the initial execution of
the routes has been successful, but the syntheses are not yet complete.
The Bleecker lab has studied the ethylene antagonist action
of a small group of other commercially available compounds that the Pirrung
group has suggested based on analogy to MCP to have such activity. The data from
these experiments are currently being analyzed. They also studied the action of
the two enantiomers of a known ethylene, antagonist, trans-cyclooctene, which
was obtained by the Pirrung lab. This experiment is of interest because of a
generally observed feature of biological activity, that in chiral compounds it
is attributable to on enantiomer.
Summary of Professional or Published Information:
None
