Nature.

In a experiment.

Why is blight so far?

Like, it sounds so simple.

They had no idea.

But now the data's...

I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding.

Nature.

Nature.

Welcome back to the nature podcast.

This week, I'm picking some puzzling plant biochemistry.

I'm Benjamin Thompson. I'm Benjamin Thompson.

Okay. Plants of the Sinchona genus are fairly unassuming things.

Native to South America, they're sometimes described as large shrubs and sometimes as small trees. But some species make some incredibly useful chemicals. For reasons that aren't entirely understood,

these plants produce a diverse bunch of nitrogen-containing compounds, collectively known as cinchona

alkaloids. The most well-known of these is quinine. Perhaps you know it as quinine, the earliest known

naturally occurring malaria treatment. But there are others too, including molecules that play

important roles as catalysts for chemical reactions.

And although these alkaloids can be made in the lab,

cinchona plants, also called Chinchona plants, remain the biggest source of the molecules.

But there's a catch. Nobody quite knows how the plants make them. Figuring out the biochemistry

underpainting their production is of great interest to researchers, as it might allow them to adapt

...