@caschenck-bio.bsky.social
Assistant professor @ University of Missouri, plant biochemist studies evolution of plant chemical diversity http://caschenck.mufaculty.umsystem.edu he|him
Our new study in Nature Plants maps how "multi-tasking" enzymes in plants transfer nitrogen, a key step toward improving crop N use efficiency. π±
Big thanks to our collaborators from Max Planck, Hokkaido Univ, & MSU, and for support from @NSF and @DOE.
Learn more: rdcu.be/eFOFN
#PlantMetabolism
Pictures of the Memorial Union at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where the 2026 PSNA meeting will be held from June 15 to 19, 2026.
Save the date! The 65th Phytochemical Society of North America (PSNA) meeting is coming to Madison, WI, from June 15-19, 2026.
Join us at the Memorial Union for exciting science, supportive community, and Wisconsin's finest! More info at psna-online.org
#PSNA2026 #Phytochemistry #PlantScience
Thanks for being part of the #AppsPlantSci Plant Metabolic Diversity special issue, @rwmartin.bsky.social et al! fyi: the special issue has published!
Check out the full issue here: bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21680450... #botany #PlantMetabolism #Phytochemistry
Big news! We are recruiting a postdoc to work on tomatillo evolution: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta.... The clade containing tomatillos and its allies (ca 300 spp) has evolved lantern fruits at least 25 times - we want to know why! Join us @rociodeanna.bsky.social & @caschenck-bio.bsky.social
11.08.2025 16:45 β π 121 π 108 π¬ 2 π 3
We identified a novel location for acylsugars, on the fruit surface, widely distributed across the Physalis genus. Paves the way for understanding the cell types and regulation responsible to fruit-surface localized acylsugars in collab with @iochromaland.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
21.07.2025 15:48 β π 3 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
Distribution of the non-proteogenic amino acid azetidine 2-carboxylic acid (Aze) across plants. Aze was mapped onto a genus-level phylogeny primarily consisting of plants within the Fabales and Asparagales orders. For literature data (Literature), the size of the circle indicates the number of species and literature reports within each genus, with larger circles indicating more Azeβspecies associations. The distribution of Aze suggests the pathway has emerged through convergent evolution. Image credit: Gibson et al.
From the upcoming #AppsPlantSci special issue: Advances in analyzing & engineering plant metabolic diversity
A new spin on chemotaxonomy: Using non-proteogenic amino acids as a test case
By Makenzie Gibson, @caschenck-bio.bsky.social, et al. bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #botany
We identified a metabolic complex involved in tomato specialized metabolism, regulating trichome acylsugar biosynthesis. Add this to a growing list of pathways that operate as protein-protein complexes of sequential enzymatic steps www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
23.02.2025 17:45 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
NSF workers who didn't get fired this morning are sending angry emails to NSF management. Here's one of them:
18.02.2025 18:35 β π 1338 π 381 π¬ 41 π 28That is our goal, we already have some candidates to test from our transcriptomes in Aze-producers, more to come soon.
12.12.2024 21:15 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Interestingly, Aze has been known for a long time, first discovered by Fowden in 1956 in Lily of the Valley onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
04.12.2024 16:51 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Plants produce tremendous chemistry to outcompete neighbors for space and resources. We identify the mechanism of action of the plant-produced proline mimic azetidine 2-carboxylic acid, which gets misincorporated during protein synthesis and leads to death of surrounding organisms.
04.12.2024 16:51 β π 6 π 5 π¬ 2 π 0
