Dr. Steven Le Hung Cheng

Plants activate innate immunity through the intracellular ribosylated and charged nucleotide second messengers pRib-AMP/pRib-ADP and di-ADPR/ADPr-ATP with recently characterized biochemical modes of action. We are collaborating with organic chemists from Stephanie Kath-Schorr’s lab to synthesize these nucleotide infochemical evaluating their in vivo activities. We are also generating synthetic derivatives of these compounds for greater chemical stability and determining their immunostimulatory potential in Arabidopsis and crop plants.