{"id":12732,"date":"2025-11-18T11:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T19:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/?p=12732"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T19:48:15","slug":"ufv-biochemist-harley-gordon-helps-uncover-major-discovery-about-salicylic-acid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/2025\/11\/18\/ufv-biochemist-harley-gordon-helps-uncover-major-discovery-about-salicylic-acid\/","title":{"rendered":"UFV biochemist Harley Gordon helps uncover major discovery about salicylic acid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>UFV TODAY November 17, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sometimes when conducting research, scientists make unexpected discoveries that change how we understand the world.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufv.ca\/biology\/contact-us\/faculty\/harley-gordon.htm\">Dr. Harley Gordon<\/a>\u2019s case, the unexpected discovery came while he was studying how salicylic acid is synthesized in plants. Harley, an assistant professor in biology at the University of the Fraser Valley, was part of a team that recently discovered a brand-new mechanism of phytohormone synthesis in a range of plant species. This kind of discovery matters because salicylic acid plays a central role in how plants keep themselves healthy.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Salicylic acid, the plant compound that inspired the creation of Aspirin, plays a central role in plant immunity \u2014 and now researchers better understand how it\u2019s made<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cWe\u2019ve discovered the main way that most plants appear to create salicylic acid,\u201d Harley notes. \u201cWe\u2019ve identified brand new biosynthetic enzymes for the natural production of salicylic acid.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Harley began this research project with a team from the University of Victoria while completing his doctoral studies. He has continued to contribute since joining UFV in 2024, using chemistry labs on the Abbotsford campus.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/blog\/2025\/11\/ufv-biochemist-harley-gordon-helps-uncover-major-discovery-about-salicylic-acid\/\">READ MORE &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UFV TODAY November 17, 2025 Sometimes when conducting research, scientists make unexpected discoveries that change how we understand the world.\u00a0 In Dr. Harley Gordon\u2019s case, the unexpected discovery came while he was studying how salicylic acid is synthesized in plants. Harley, an assistant professor in biology at the University of the Fraser Valley, was part &#8230; <a title=\"UFV biochemist Harley Gordon helps uncover major discovery about salicylic acid\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/2025\/11\/18\/ufv-biochemist-harley-gordon-helps-uncover-major-discovery-about-salicylic-acid\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":12733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[481],"class_list":["post-12732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-deans-office","tag-biochem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12735,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732\/revisions\/12735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}