ProfessorChristopher McErlean

Project Opportunities

Title: Total Synthesis of Plant Growth Promoters

Summary of opportunity:

Opportunities exist to take a leading role in the development of next-generation agrochemicals by synthesizing naturally occurring plant growth promoters and their analogues.

Opportunity synopsis:

Plants, including important food crops such as wheat and rice, form symbiotic relationships with fungi which allows for nutrient transfer. Critical to this symbiotic relationship is a family of molecules called strigolactones. If agricultural scientists could access plant-specific strigolactones, they could ensure that only target crops uptake soil nutrients. This PhD project will entail the synthesis of all canonical strigolactones based on a late stage C-H activation strategy. This will enable our collaborators in plant science to identify key strigolactones and enable us to design next generation agrichemicals. for further information see:1. Accessing Single Enantiomer Strigolactones: Progress and Opportunities. Liam J. Bromhead and Christopher S. P. McErlean Eur. J. Org. Chem. (2017) DOI:10.1002/ejoc.201700865.2. Synthesis of highly enantio-enriched stereoisomers of hydroxy-GR24. Joanne C. Morris and Christopher S. P. McErlean, Org. Biomol. Chem. (2016) 14, 1236–1238.3. Chemistry of the synthetic strigolactone mimic GR24. Liam J. Bromhead, Jason Smith, and Christopher S. P. McErlean, Aus. J. Chem. (2015) 68, 1221–1227.4. Enantioselective synthesis of the strigolactone mimic (+)-GR24. Bromhead, Liam; Visser, Johan; McErlean, Christopher S. P., J. Org. Chem. (2014) 79, 1516–1520.