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Chemical Communication in a Post-Genomic World (2003) / Chapter Skim
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2 Understanding the chemistry of chemical communication: Are we there yet?
Pages 2-4

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From page 2...
... With the realization that organic compounds are almost universally compounds of carbon, and that carbon-based chemistry offers a practically limitless domain of study entirely independent of biology, the subject of organic chemistry redefined itself much more broadly as simply the chemistry of carbon compounds. Methods for making and breaking carbon-carbon bonds, assembling natural and non-natural structures by rational synthesis, determining both molecular structures and stereochemistry, relating molecular structures to chemical and physical properties, and understanding the detailed mechanisms by which organic reactions occur all took center stage.
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From page 3...
... viewpoint, these novel techniques could be coupled not only with one another but also with newly developed biological experimental methods, such as the "electroantennogram" technique, to provide insights into interactions at the molecular level, thereby supporting the emergent discipline of chemical ecology. It is instructive to contrast present-day research techniques with Butenandt's pioneering research on chemical communication, carried out over a roughly two-decade period in the mid-20th century and leading to the characterization of bombykol, the first pheromone to be chemically characterized.
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From page 4...
... My research in chemical communication, pursued for more than four decades in close collaboration with Dr. Thomas Eisner, along with many dozens of dedicated predoctoral and postdoctoral students, has been generously supported by National Institutes of Health Grant GM53830 and the Schering Plough Research Institute.
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Key Terms

  • chemical communication
  • structure determination
  • natural products
  • products chemistry
  • signal molecules

  • chemically characterized
  • experimental techniques
  • molecular structures
  • molecular weight
  • chemical signaling

  • moth sex
  • crudest techniques
  • quantitative gap
  • research grant
  • unknown sample

  • available nmr
  • grant application
  • living organisms
  • greatly oversimplifying
  • insurmountable difficulties

  • provide invaluable
  • deeply discouraged
  • required grams
  • readily cultured
  • thereby supporting

  • organic reactions
  • spectroscopic techniques
  • means whereby
  • products chemists
  • frequently depends


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