Using Ecological Criteria to Design Plant Collection Strategies for Drug Discovery

Coley, Phyllis D.; Heller, Maria V.; Aizprúa, Rafael; Arauz, Blanca; Flores, Nayda; Correa, Mireya; Gupta, Mahabir P.; Solı́s, Pablo; Ortega-Barria, Eduardo; Romero, Luz; Gomez, Basilio; Ramos, Marla; Cubilla‐Rios, Luis; Capson, Todd L.; Kursar, Thomas A.

doi:10.2307/3868139

Cited by 28 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…Several earlier workers have indeed recognized this feature, though not as explicitly as stated here [4,95,96]; for example, both Wynne-Edwards (2000) [96] and Coley et al (2003) [4] argued that the evolutionary biology of plant defenses against herbivory could hold great promise in directing drug discovery and bioprospecting efforts. An obvious advantage of the evolutionary rationale is the high degree of selectivity in assay results.…”

Section: Fitness Laxativesmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Biodiversity and Chemodiversity: Future Perspectives in Bioprospecting

Ramesha¹,

Gertsch²,

Ravikanth³

et al. 2011

CDT

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Biological diversity and its constituent chemical diversity have served as one of the richest sources of bioprospecting leading to the discovery of some of the most important bioactive molecules for mankind. Despite this excellent record, in the recent past, however, bioprospecting of biological resources has met with little success; there has been a perceptible decline in the discovery of novel bioactive compounds. Several arguments have been proposed to explain the current poor success in bioprospecting. Among them, it has been argued that to bioprospect more biodiversity may not necessarily be productive, considering that chemical and functional diversity might not scale with biological diversity. In this paper, we offer a critique on the current perception of biodiversity and chemodiversity and ask to what extent it is relevant in the context of bioprospecting. First, using simple models, we analyze the relation among biodiversity, chemodiversity and functional redundancies in chemical plans of plants and argue that the biological space for exploration might still be wide open. Second, in the context of future bioprospecting, we argue that brute-force high throughput screening approaches alone are insufficient and cost ineffective in realizing bioprospecting success. Therefore, intelligent or non-random approaches to bioprospecting need to be adopted. We review here few examples of such approaches and show how these could be further developed and used in the future to accelerate the pace of discovery.

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Section: Fitness Laxativesmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Biological diversity and its constituent chemical diversity have served as one of the richest sources of bioprospecting thus leading to the discoveries of some of the most important bioactive molecules that mankind have ever known [1][2][3][4][5]. From the antibiotic penicillin (from Penicillium sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity and Chemodiversity: Future Perspectives in Bioprospecting

Ramesha¹,

Gertsch²,

Ravikanth³

et al. 2011

CDT

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“…Although they may well produce secondary plant compounds in their leaves (cf. Coley et al 2003), it is unlikely that these qualities were apprehended by humans, who are largely earth bound. In the small-statured (at least in this study) legume and dillenia families of trees, 100% of the useful species are exploited for their medicinal properties.…”

Section: Species Utilitymentioning

confidence: 97%

Dusun Ethnobotany: Forest Knowledge and Nomenclature in Northern Borneo

Voeks

Nyawa

2006

Journal of Cultural Geography

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Ethnobotanical knowledge constitutes a primary nexus of nature and culture within traditional, subsistence societies. This paper examines the ethnobotanical knowledge domain and naming system maintained by the Dusun of northern Borneo (Brunei), a swidden cultivating group. Two elderly male Dusun collaborated in a census of old-growth and disturbed forest habitats. They identified and named 244 species, of which 87% serve either material or magical ends. Roughly 78% of the sample provide for basic human needsshelter, food, and medicine. Plants employed for their structural or reproductive components provide a greater variety of services than species utilized primarily for medicinal compounds. Medicinal species are largely associated with disturbed rather than old-growth habitats. The Dusun plant taxonomy parallels its western scientific counterpart in some respects, but diverges in others. Ranks are recognized at the life form, intermediate, genus, and species levels. Most taxa are lumped into tree (kayuh), vine (akau), and rattan (uwai) life forms, jinx (sisil) and dermatitis (rangas) taxa constitute problematic covert groupings. Of the 120 scientific plant genera identified, 88.3% were associated with a single Dusun folk genus. Only 16% of the 141 named categories were identified as binomials, that is, a folk generic followed by a descriptive epithet, such as color, habit, geographical location, or sex.

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“…(aroeiraAnacardiaceae), which grows in the same habitat, adopts a different strategy (Monteiro et al, 2006b). Coley et al (2003), using an ecological approach in a bioprospecting study, found a weak correlation between plant growth rate and bioactivity (activity against three cancer cell lines, leishmaniasis, malaria and Chagas disease). In that study, extracts from shrubs and trees were the most active.…”

Section: The Investment Of Fast-growing and Slow-growing Plants In Chmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…doi:10.1016/j.jep.2011.12.042 ecology, especially those that attempt to understand the investment of plants in anti-herbivore defense (see examples in Donaldson and Cates, 2004). Coley et al (2003) concluded that ecological theories of plant defense can aid in the discover of the compounds with biological activity against human disease targets. For example, these authors found that young leaves showed higher activity than mature leaves in some bioassays.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%