"How Plants Evolve the Ability to Make So Many Aroma Compounds"

Both flowers and leaves of plants emit scent compounds – compounds that travel through the air and are detected by the olfactory systems of animals. These compounds help the plant survive and thrive, by attracting pollinators and seed dispersers and by protecting them from herbivores and harmful microorganisms. Scent compounds found in foodstuff also have an important impact on taste and palatability. My talk will present work done in my laboratory that identified the genes and enzymes responsible for synthesis of many scent compounds in plants and discuss the specific mechanisms by which new genes specifying new compounds arise.