Καινοτομία

A new study supported by the EU-funded TRIFORC project has shown that by changing the genetic code for one amino acid in a plant begins a process that produces a new natural product that could be used in a variety of ways, including disease resistance.

Plants, ranging from the maple or the yew tree to the corn in roadside fields, produce countless kinds of compounds. These are very useful as antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs or vitamins and are often far too complex to be synthesised successfully in a laboratory, but they can be purified from the plants in which they are found.