Date of Award
3-27-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Applied Science
First Advisor
Mariya Khodakovskaya
Abstract
Environmental stress can change the metabolic profile of plants. Some metabolites produced by plants are pharmaceutically active and used to treat conditions like inflammation and cancer. Demand for plant metabolite pharmaceuticals has led scientists to search for ways to increase their production, especially for compounds that cannot be synthesized on a mass scale in commercial laboratories. Genetic modification, although a popular technique, does not work for all plant types and is not readily accepted by society. Previous research has shown that carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs), when applied to model plants, activate genes related to plant stress response. We have applied carbon-based nanomaterials to model plants to examine the effect of exposure on the total metabolome. Further, we studied the effect of CBN exposure on the production of compounds with pharmaceutical activity in a model medicinal plant. Finally, we investigated whether extracts of the model medicinal plant exposed to CBNs were more effective at inhibiting proliferation of cancer cells than extracts of unexposed (control) plant cells.
Recommended Citation
McGehee, Diamond, "Regulation of Plant Secondary Metabolism by Carbon-Based Nanomaterials" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 857.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/857
