Natalia Dudareva

Natalia Dudareva Profile Picture

Distinguished Professor, Department of Biochemistry
Ph.D., University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France 1995

Contact Info:

Training Group(s):
Plant Biology

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Plants have exploited the language of small chemicals for interacting with their environment more extensively than any other types of living organisms. An amazing diversity of volatile molecules released by plants play essential roles in their growth, development, reproduction, defense, and communication, and influence atmospheric chemistry and climate. Formation of these compounds relies on primary metabolic networks for the supply of precursors for their biosynthesis. Research in my laboratory focuses on understanding of biochemical and molecular mechanisms controlling the formation of primary and secondary (phenylpropanoid and terpenoid) metabolites in plants using the power of genetic and biochemical approaches combined with metabolic flux analysis and modeling.

Selected Publications:

Adebesin F, Widhalm J, Lynch J, McCoy R, Dudareva N. 2018. A peroxisomal thioesterase plays auxiliary roles in plant β-oxidative benzoic acid metabolism. Plant J., 93: 905-916.

Lynch JH, Orlova I, Zhao C, Guo L, Jaini R, Maeda H, Akhtar T, Cruz-Lebron J, Rhodes D, Morgan J, Pilot G, Pichersky E, Dudareva N. 2017. Multifaceted plant responses to circumvent Phe hyperaccumulation by downregulation of flux through the shikimate pathway and by vacuolar Phe sequestration. Plant J., 92: 939-950.

Tissier A, Morgan JA, Dudareva N. 2017. Volatiles: going “in” but not ”out” of trichome cavities. Trends in Plant Sci., 22: 930-938.

Adebesin F, Widhalm JR, Boachon B, Lefèvre F, Pierman B, Lynch JH, Alam I, Junqueira B, Benke R, Ray S, Porter JA, Yanagisawa M, Wetzstein HY, Morgan JA, Boutry M, Schuurink RC, Dudareva N. 2017. Emission of volatile organic compounds from petunia is facilitated by an ABC transporter. Science, 356, issue 6345: 1386-1388

Widhalm JR, Jaini R, Morgan JA, Dudareva N. 2015. Rethinking how volatiles are released from plant cells. Trends in Plant Sci., 20: 545-550.

Widhalm JR, Gutensohn M, Yoo H, Adebesin F, Qian Y, Guo L, Jaini R, McCoy RM, Lynch J, Shreve JT, Thimmapuram J, Rhodes D, Morgan JA, Dudareva N. 2015. Identification of a plastidial phenylalanine exporter that influences flux distribution through the phenylalanine biosynthetic network. Nature Communications, 6: 8142 doi:10.1038/ncomms9142.

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