Building Partnership for Drug and Ag Discovery and Conservation of the Natural Resources in Brazil

Cerrado, Brazilian savanna, covers 2 million km², representing 23% of the land surface of the country. It occupies the central part of Brazil, from the margin of the Amazonian forest to outlying areas in the southern states of Sao Paulo. According to Dias' [1] estimation, the Cerrado contains 160,000 species of plants, fungi and animals. This proposed research program will expand and upgrade the conservation effort. The project will: 1) build an International Partnership on Conservation and Natural Product Discovery; 2) map and protect the genetic resources by establishing germplasm bank of two endemic families Leguminosae and Combrestaceae; 3) search for new pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals to control tropical diseases, and agricultural pests and pathogens, 4) create an Eco-extract-library and ex situ collections for future studies; 5) establish a microbial library of plant associated microorganisms. As the establishment of in vitro germplasm bank progresses, endophytic microbes commonly associated with plants will outgrow the host tissues and allow us to detect and identify them. Some of these organisms are responsible for production of secondary metabolites [2,3]. Clonal propagation by in vitro methods will supply the biomass for fractionation and isolation of the active metabolite(s) and future developments. In addition, micropropagation will provide a unique opportunity to identify and evaluate the contribution of plant associated microorganism to the biological properties. References: [1] Dias BF, (1992) Manejo e Consevacao dos Recursos Naturais Renovaveis. Funatura, Brasilia. DF. Brazil. [2] Lata H, et al. (2006) Plant Cell Tiss Org, 85: 353–359. [3] Strobel G, (2006) Curr Opin Microbiol, 9: 240–244.