Melatonin and Serotonin in Plants
Melatonin and serotonin evolved during a time of drastic changes on the Earth, and enabled our ancient prokaryotic ancestors to survive the Great Oxygenation Event. As we are undergoing a period of significant climate change these compounds are likely to be important adaptive molecules once again. Current work on this project emphasizes multidiscplinary approaches including metabolomics, hormonomics, imaging and plant cell culture. By understanding how melatonin and serotonin function as both protective and growth regulatory molecules, we can better understanding how they may help plants not just survive, but also thrive in new and changing environments.
Collaborators:
Dr. Praveen Saxena, Professor and Director Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation (GRIPP), University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada www.gripp.ca
Dr. Susan Murch, Professor PlantSMART lab, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, Canada https://chem.ok.ubc.ca/faculty/murch.html
Dr. Isaac Li, Assistant Professor Single Molecule Mechano-Biology Lab, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, Canada people.ok.ubc.ca/isaacli/
Featured publications
Erland, LAE, Dumigan CR, Forsyth JA, Frolova L, Yasunaga AB, Pun W, Li IT, Deyholos MK, Murch SJ. Mammalian Melatonin Agonist Pharmaceuticals Stimulate Rhomboid Proteins in Plants. Biomolecules. 2022 Jun 24;12(7):882. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12070882
Murch, SJ, Erland, LAE*. 2021. A Systematic Review of Melatonin in Plants: An example of evolution of literature. Front Plant Sci, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.683047
Erland, LAE, Yasunaga, A, Li, TS, Murch, SJ, Saxena, PK*. 2019. Direct visualization of location and uptake of applied melatonin and serotonin in living tissues and their redistribution in plants in response to thermal stress. Journal of Pineal Research. doi: 10.1111/jpi12527.
Erland, LAE, Saxena, PK*. 2019. Tryptophan functions as an inductive signal independent of auxin to induce morphogenesis in Hypericum perforatum (L.). PLoS One, doi: 10.137/journal.pone.0223878
Chattopadhyay, A, Erland, LAE, Jones, AMP, Saxena, PK*. 2018. Indoleamines and phenylpropanoids modify development in the bryophyte Plagiomnium cuspidatum (Hedw.) T.J. Kop. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol – Plant. 54(4):454-464. (IF. 1.057)
Erland, LAE, Shukla, MR, Singh, AS, Murch, SJ, Saxena, PK*. 2018. Melatonin and serotonin mediators in the symphony of plant morphogenesis. J Pineal Res 64(2):e12452
Erland, LAE, Chattopadhyay, A, Jones, AMP, Saxena, PK*. 2016. Melatonin in plants and plant culture systems: variability, stability and efficient quantification. Front Plant Sci 7:1721.
