Jonathan Gershenzon

Jonathan Gershenzon (* 1955) is an American biochemist.

Academic Career

After studying biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a doctorate in botany at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, was Gershenzon Fellow and from 1991 scientists at the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University in Pullman. Since 1997 he has been Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (1997) and Head of the Department of Biochemistry. He was appointed Honorary Professor at the Friedrich -Schiller- University of Jena in 1999.

Gershenzon investigated the biochemistry of plant substances, especially the functions of plant secondary metabolites and their effects on herbivorous insects as well as the regulation of plant secondary metabolism and the evolution of metabolic pathways. His research focuses primarily on the study of two major groups of plant metabolites that serve the plant defense: mustard oil glycosides and terpenes.

Honors and Awards

Publications (selection )

  • Gershenzon, J. (1994). Metabolic costs of terpenoid accumulation in higher -plants. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 20 ( 6), 1281-1328. doi: 10.1007/BF02059810
  • Lambrix, V., Reichelt, M., Mitchell - Olds, T., Kliebenstein, DJ, Gershenzon, J. ( 2001). The Arabidopsis protein epithiospecifier Promotes the hydrolysis of glucosinolates to nitriles and Influences Trichoplusia ni herbivory. The Plant Cell, 13 (12), 2793-2807. PMC 139489 ( free full text )
  • Pichersky, E., Gershenzon, J. ( 2002). The formation and function of plant volatiles: perfumes for pollinator attraction and defense. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 5 ( 3), 237-243. doi: 10.1016/S1369-5266 (02) 00251-0
  • Wittstock, U., Agerbirk, N., Stauber, EJ, Olsen CE, Hippler, M., Mitchell - Olds, T., Gershenzon, J., Vogel, H. ( 2004). Successful herbivore attack due to metabolic diversion of a plant chemical defense. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101 (14 ), 4859-4864. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0308007101
  • Dudareva, N., Andersson, S., Orlova, I., Gatto, N., Reichelt, M., Rhodes, D., Boland, W., Gershenzon, J. ( 2005). The nonmevalonate pathway supports monoterpene and sesquiterpene formation in Both snapdragon flowers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102 (3), 933-938. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0407360102
  • Rasmann, S., Köllner, TG, Degenhardt, J., Hiltpold, I., Toepfer, S., Kuhlmann, U., Gershenzon, J., Turlings, TCJ ( 2005). Recruitment of entomopathogenic nematodes by insect - damaged maize roots. Nature, 434, 732-737. doi: 10.1038/nature03451
  • Halkier, B. A., Gershenzon, J. (2006). Biology and biochemistry of glucosinolates. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 57, 303-333. doi: 10.1146/annurev.arplant.57.032905.105228
  • Gershenzon, J., Dudareva, N. ( 2007). The function of terpene natural products in the natural world. Nature Chemical Biology 3 (7) 408-414. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2007.5
Digital Object Identifier Science (journal)
260911
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