Fundamental plant chemicals trace back to bacteria

A fundamental chemical pathway that all plants use to create an essential amino acid needed by all animals to make proteins has now been traced to two groups of ancient bacteria. Researchers describe in a new article how they traced the phenylalanine pathway to two groups of bacteria. "Our question was how plants can produce so many different kinds and amounts of these aromatics, particularly the phenylalanine-derived compounds," they explain.

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