Plants are rooted in the ground and cannot run away from challenges - instead, they use complex metabolic networks to generate massive arrays of bioactive chemicals. With these they are able to colonize deserts, transform Earth's atmosphere, and live for thousands of years. Research in the Busta lab focuses on understanding the biochemistry and evolution of plant metabolic networks. We use informatics to unite classical analytical chemistry with high-throughput DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence technologies and are currently focused on the following:
Integrating Artificial Intelligence Into Phytochemical Research
Rapid developments in large language models are creating new opportunities for phytochemical research. We are conducting pioneering experiments with diverse language model, including protein and vision models, to find new ways of conducting phytochemical research. Current goals in this area include:
- Automating the creation of databases with language models.
- Predicting chemical phenomena using language models.
Biosynthesis And Evolution of Plant Natural Products
Plants produce a massive array of chemicals to enhance their fitness. Relatively large efforts have been made to understand the biosynthesis of these compounds, enabling us to draw insipiration from nature's processes for biotechnological applications. Our current goals with plant natural products include:
- Leveraging phylogenetically-resolved maps of chemical occurrence.
- Developing new, nature-inspired strategies for high-value chemical production.
Fundamental Knowledge and Applications of Plant Cuticular Waxes
Virtually all land plants coat themselves with waxes to protect against dehydration, but some plants go further and coat themselves in massive amounts of wax - enough that it is visible at a glance as a white coating. Thus, not only are natural waxes are a high value product used in diverse areas of industry, but waxes are one key to creating drought-tolerant crop varieties. We have several current goals in this area:
- Developing sorghum kernel waxes as an industrial product.
- Understanding the fundamental structure-function relationships in plant cuticles.