UTM researcher solves decades-old mystery, redefines how plant metabolism is understood

Research by UTM’s Sonia Evans sheds light on the origin of pyruvate in chloroplasts, opening the door to enhanced crop productivity and resilience. (Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)
Story originally appeared in UTM News Room by Kristy Strauss.
Sonia Evans’s path to becoming an award-winning researcher started with her grandmother – a woman who had no formal education.
Her grandmother, who believed in the healing power of plants, made plant-based traditional medicines for people suffering different ailments, such as infertility and skin conditions, in her southern Nigerian village.
“She knew the type of plants to go to, and made different concoctions for us,” remembers Evans, a PhD student in biology at U of T Mississauga who will be continuing her postdoctoral work at U of T Scarborough. “She never knew the names of the plants, but she knew the types of plants to put together to get the result she was expecting.”
While Evans didn’t realize it at the time, her grandmother’s work would ultimately influence her future academic career.
A student at UTM’s Phillips lab, Evans focuses on understanding how plants control carbon supply towards the production of isoprenoids – which are high-value compounds critical to plant growth, defence and crop productivity. These compounds also have significant pharmaceutical and industrial applications, making them central to sustainable solutions in agriculture and biotechnology.
In her recent work, Evans sheds light on a decades-old mystery in plant science: the origin of pyruvate in chloroplasts (which are responsible for photosynthesis). Pyruvate is a vital precursor for the production of isoprenoids, amino acids and fatty acids. Evans’s work reveals that Rubisco, nature’s most important enzyme, responsible for fixing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, plays a surprising secondary role in supplying pyruvate.
This discovery not only redefines how scientists understand plant metabolism, but also solves a long-standing paradox of the origin of pyruvate. Evans’s findings ultimately provide a critical link between photosynthesis and the production of isoprenoids. By uncovering how plants channel carbon toward these valuable compounds, her research opens the door to innovative biotechnological strategies for engineering crops with enhanced productivity and resilience.
Read the full story on the University of Toronto Mississauga website.