Founders review: Forty years of research into hormone mimics, inhibitors, and agrochemicals

This review, by Tadao Asami, looks back at his career as a scientist who designs and synthesizes small, physiologically active molecules with applications in research and agriculture.  It’s an impressive history documenting how the methods used for such rational design have evolved over the past five decades. He describes his research projects in terms of the hormone pathways they affect, including abscisic acid, brassinosteroids, strigolactones, ethylene, gibberellins, and salicylic acid. Each story starts with a discussion of what the hormone does in plants, what was known at the time he started working on it, what is known now, and a description of how the research team went about designing and synthesizing small molecule agonists or antagonists. In some cases the researchers set about synthesizing molecules that are structurally similar to the hormone and tested them for biological activity. Other projects started with the known structure of a protein that binds the hormone, and set about designing molecules that would interact with the hormone-binding site. Still others began with a chemical library screen. I recommend this article to all who are interested in plant hormones, small molecule design, or any aspect of plant physiology. (Summary by Mary Williams @PlantTeaching.bsky.social) Plant Physiol. 10.1093/plphys/kiaf403