Aldwin Anterola | Plant Biology | SIU

Aldwin Anterola

Associate Professor. Phytochemistry and Plant Secondary Metabolism

My research involves studying the biosynthesis of plant constituents that have medicinal or industrial uses. We employ multidisciplinary techniques in phytochemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry and tissue culture to understand how the production of plant natural products is controlled. Our long-term goal is to be able to systematically manipulate metabolic pathways for increased production of economically important compounds, as well as to generate novel chemical structures (that may have useful properties) from existing natural templates. Research projects include: (1) development of plant bioreactors that serve as metabolic platforms producing specialty chemicals, e.g. drugs, dyes and perfumes; (2) elucidation of pathways leading to the formation of naturally occurring medicinal compounds in plants, such as biflavonoids, diterpenes and eicosanoids; and (3) isolation and identification of secondary metabolites that target the arachidonic acid inflammatory cascade. Any inquiries on these research activities from potential students and collaborators are most welcome.

Education

Ph.D. 2001, Washington State University

Selected Publications

1. Anterola, A.M., Shanle, E., Perroud, P.-F., and Quatrano, R. 2009. Production of taxa-4(5), 11(12)-diene by transgenic Physcomitrella patens. Transgenic Research 18 (4), 655-60.
2. Morrone, D., Chambers, J., Lowry, L., Kim, G., Anterola, A.M., Bender, K. and Peters, R.J. 2009. Gibberellin biosynthesis in bacteria: functional identification of separate copalyl diphosphate and ent-kaurene synthases fromBradyrhizobium japonicum. FEBS letters 583 (2), 457-480.
3. Anterola, A.M., Shanle, E., Mansouri, K., Schuette, S. and Renzaglia, K. 2009. Gibberellin precursor is involved in spore germination in the moss Physcomitrella patens. Planta 229 (4), 1003-1007.
4. Anterola, A.M., Göbel, C., Hornung, E., Sellhorn, G., Feussner, I. and Grimes, H. 2009. Physcomitrella patens has lipoxygenases for both eicosanoid and octadecanoid pathways. Phytochemistry 70 (1), 45-57.
5. Anterola, A.M. and Shanle, E. 2008. Genomic insights in moss gibberellin biosynthesis. The Bryologist 111 (2), 218-230.
6. Rensing, S.A., Lang, D., Zimmer, A.D., Terry, A., Salamov, A., Shapiro, H., Nishiyama, T., Perroud, P.F., Lindquist, E.A., Kamisugi, Y., Tanahashi, T., Sakakibara, K., Fujita, T., Oishi, K., Shin-I, T., Kuroki, Y., Toyoda, A., Suzuki, Y., Hashimoto, S., Yamaguchi, K., Sugano, S., Kohara, Y., Fujiyama, A., Anterola, A.M., Aoki, S., Ashton, N., Barbazuk, W.B., Barker, E., Bennetzen, J.L., Blankenship, R., Cho, S.H., Dutcher, S.K., Estelle, M., Fawcett, J.A., Gundlach, H., Hanada, K., Heyl, A., Hicks, K.A., Hughes, J., Lohr, M., Mayer, K., Melkozernov, A., Murata, T., Nelson, D.R., Pils, B., Prigge, M., Reiss, B., Renner, T., Rombauts, S., Rushton, P.J., Sanderfoot, A., Schween, G., Shiu, S.H., Stueber, K., Theodoulou, F.L., Tu, H., Van de Pee,r Y., Verrier, P.J., Waters, E., Wood, A., Yang, L., Cove, D., Cuming, A.C., Hasebe, M., Lucas, S., Mishler, B.D., Reski, R., Grigoriev, I.V., Quatrano, R.S. and Boore J.L. 2008. The Physcomitrella genome reveals evolutionary insights into the conquest of land by plants. Science 319 (5859), 64-69.
7. Shanle, E. and Anterola, A.M. 2008. Heterologous expression of a moss bifunctional kaurene synthase in E. coli. Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 7 (3), 85-88.
8. Cho, M.H., Corea, O.R., Yang, H., Bedgar, D.L., Laskar, D.D., Anterola, A.M., Moog-Anterola, F.A., Hood, R.L., Kohalmi, S.E., Bernards, M.A., Kang, C., Davin, L.B. and Lewis, N.G.  2007.  Phenylalanine biosynthesis inArabidopsis thaliana: Identification and characterization of arogenate dehydratases.  Journal of Biological Chemistry 282 (42), 30827-30835.
9. Murphy, K., Kuhle, R.A., Fischer, A.M., Anterola, A.M. and Grimes, H.D. 2005. The functional status of paraveinal mesophyll vacuoles changes in response to altered metabolic conditions in soybean leaves. Functional Plant Biology 32, 335-344.
10. Anterola, A.M. and Lewis, N.G. 2002. Trends in lignin modification: a comprehensive analysis of the effects of genetic manipulations/mutations on lignification and vascular integrity. Phytochemistry 61, 221-294.
11. Anterola, A.M., Jeon, J.-H., Davin, L.B. and Lewis, N.G.  2002.  Transcriptional control of monolignol biosynthesis in Pinus taeda: factors affecting monolignol ratios and carbon allocation in phenylpropanoid metabolism.  Journal of Biological Chemistry 277, 18272-80.