Abstract

Plants are nature's master chemists, synthesizing an immense diversity of specialized metabolites with profound chemical complexity and functionality. As sessile organisms unable to escape adverse conditions, plants have evolved to use this sophisticated chemical language to communicate with their abiotic and biotic environments, enabling their success across diverse terrestrial ecosystems. Recent advances in genomics, metabolomics, synthetic biology, and AI-based computational tools now enable us to decode these intricate chemical communications with unprecedented speed and depth. In this talk, I will present our integrated multi-omics approaches aimed at unraveling specialized metabolic pathways in non-model plants. Additionally, I will highlight our recent exploration into how plant metabolites interact with the human gut microbiome and the human immune system through bitter taste receptors, providing insights into the roles these metabolites play in mediating inter-species interactions. Ultimately, our goal is to decode the chemical language that plants use to dynamically interact with their surrounding world, unlocking opportunities to leverage and engineer these metabolites for advancements in human health and sustainability.