PHYTOESTROGENIC EFFECTS OF ELICITOR INDUCED ISOFLAVONOIDS IN LEGUMES

1. Induce, purify, and characterize isoflavonoids in soybean seed, root, plant, and cell culture induced with food grade elicitors including fungi. 2. Determine anticancer, hormonal, and antioxidant activities of individual, and combinations of, induced isoflavonoids with in vitro bioassays. Effects of phytoalexins using in vitro cell systems for PPAR transcriptional activity, adipocyte differentiation, and obesity related gene expression will be tested. In vivo gene expression from tissue samples from ongoing experiments will be evaluated. Computer modeling of potential phytoalexin structures for PPAR agonist activity will be performed. 3. Determine hormonal and anticancer effects of individual and combinations of induced isoflavonoids with in vivo animal model systems. 4. Develop methods for the organic syntheses of the glyceollins I, II, and III. Also, precursors and synthetic analogues of the glyceollins will be produced and characterized for beneficial hormonal activities. Computer modeling methods will be developed to assist in the development of structure-activity relationships that point toward the most active forms of the molecule.