The metabolome represents an important functional trait likely important to plant invasion success, but we have a limited understanding of whether the entire metabolome or targeted groups of compounds confer an advantage to invasive as compared to native taxa. We conducted a lipidomic and metabolomic analysis of the cosmopolitan wetland grass Phragmites australis. We classified features into metabolic pathways, subclasses, and classes. Subsequently, we used Random Forests to identify informative features to differentiate five phylogeographic and ecologically distinct lineages: European native, North American invasive, North American native, Gulf, and Delta. We found that lineages had unique phytochemical fingerprints, although there was overlap between the North American invasive and North American native lineages. Furthermore, we found that divergence in phytochemical diversity was driven by compound evenness rather than metabolite richness. Interestingly, the North American invasive lineage had greater chemical evenness than the Delta and Gulf lineages but lower evenness than the North American native lineage. Our results suggest that metabolomic evenness may represent a critical functional trait within a plant species. Its role in invasion success, resistance to herbivory, and large-scale die-off events common to this and other plant species remain to be investigated.

• Klíčová slova
• Common Reed, Ecological Omics, Invasion Ecology, Invasive Plant Species, Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (LC–MS), Phytochemistry,
• MeSH
• fenotyp MeSH
• fytonutrienty MeSH
• lipnicovité * MeSH
• mokřady * MeSH
• rostliny MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• fytonutrienty MeSH

Tropical rainforests harbor a particularly high plant diversity. We hypothesize that potential causes underlying this high diversity should be linked to distinct overall functionality (defense and growth allocation, anti-stress mechanisms, reproduction) among the different sympatric taxa. In this study we tested the hypothesis of the existence of a metabolomic niche related to a species-specific differential use and allocation of metabolites. We tested this hypothesis by comparing leaf metabolomic profiles of 54 species in two rainforests of French Guiana. Species identity explained most of the variation in the metabolome, with a species-specific metabolomic profile across dry and wet seasons. In addition to this "homeostatic" species-specific metabolomic profile significantly linked to phylogenetic distances, also part of the variance (flexibility) of the metabolomic profile was explained by season within a single species. Our results support the hypothesis of the high diversity in tropical forest being related to a species-specific metabolomic niche and highlight ecometabolomics as a tool to identify this species functional diversity related and consistent with the ecological niche theory.

• MeSH
• analýza rozptylu MeSH
• deštný prales * MeSH
• diskriminační analýza MeSH
• druhová specificita MeSH
• listy rostlin metabolismus   MeSH
• metabolom MeSH
• metabolomika * MeSH
• metoda nejmenších čtverců MeSH
• roční období MeSH
• shluková analýza MeSH
• stromy metabolismus   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Francouzská Guyana MeSH

Many studies have addressed several plant-insect interaction topics at nutritional, molecular, physiological, and evolutionary levels. However, it is still unknown how flexible the metabolism and the nutritional content of specialist insect herbivores feeding on different closely related plants can be. We performed elemental, stoichiometric, and metabolomics analyses on leaves of two coexisting Pinus sylvestris subspecies and on their main insect herbivore; the caterpillar of the processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa). Caterpillars feeding on different pine subspecies had distinct overall metabolome structure, accounting for over 10% of the total variability. Although plants and insects have very divergent metabolomes, caterpillars showed certain resemblance to their plant-host metabolome. In addition, few plant-related secondary metabolites were found accumulated in caterpillar tissues which could potentially be used for self-defense. Caterpillars feeding on N and P richer needles had lower N and P tissue concentration and higher C:N and C:P ratios, suggesting that nutrient transfer is not necessarily linear through trophic levels and other plant-metabolic factors could be interfering. This exploratory study showed that little chemical differences between plant food sources can impact the overall metabolome of specialist insect herbivores. Significant nutritional shifts in herbivore tissues could lead to larger changes of the trophic web structure.

• Klíčová slova
• herbivory, metabolomics, plant-insect, processionary moth, scots pine, secondary metabolites, stoichiometry,
• MeSH
• analýza hlavních komponent MeSH
• borovice lesní metabolismus   parazitologie   MeSH
• býložravci MeSH
• druhová specificita MeSH
• dusík analýza   MeSH
• fosfor analýza   MeSH
• hmotnostní spektrometrie MeSH
• interakce hostitele a parazita MeSH
• larva chemie   fyziologie   MeSH
• listy rostlin chemie   metabolismus   parazitologie   MeSH
• metabolom * MeSH
• metabolomika * MeSH
• můry růst a vývoj   fyziologie   MeSH
• stravovací zvyklosti MeSH
• vysokoúčinná kapalinová chromatografie MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• dusík MeSH
• fosfor MeSH

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Allelopathy may drive invasions of some exotic plants, although empirical evidence for this theory remains largely inconclusive. This could be related to the large intraspecific variability of chemically mediated plant-plant interactions, which is poorly studied. This study addressed intraspecific variability in allelopathy of Heracleum mantegazzianum (giant hogweed), an invasive species with a considerable negative impact on native communities and ecosystems. METHODS: Bioassays were carried out to test the alleopathic effects of H. mantegazzianum root exudates on germination of Arabidopsis thaliana and Plantago lanceolata. Populations of H. mantegazzianum from the Czech Republic were sampled and variation in the phytotoxic effects of the exudates was partitioned between areas, populations within areas, and maternal lines. The composition of the root exudates was determined by metabolic profiling using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and the relationships between the metabolic profiles and the effects observed in the bioassays were tested using orthogonal partial least-squares analysis. KEY RESULTS: Variance partitioning indicated that the highest variance in phytotoxic effects was within populations. The inhibition of germination observed in the bioassay for the co-occurring native species P. lanceolata could be predicted by the metabolic profiles of the root exudates of particular maternal lines. Fifteen compounds associated with this inhibition were tentatively identified. CONCLUSIONS: The results present strong evidence that intraspecific variability needs to be considered in research on allelopathy, and suggest that metabolic profiling provides an efficient tool for studying chemically mediated plant-plant interactions whenever unknown metabolites are involved.

• Klíčová slova
• Allelopathy, Apiaceae, Heracleum mantegazzianum, OPLS analysis, Plantago lanceolata, UHPLC–TOF–MS, compound identification, germination bioassay, giant hogweed, invasion ecology, invasive species, metabolic profile, novel weapons hypothesis, plant metabolomics, root exudates,
• MeSH
• alelopatie * MeSH
• Arabidopsis účinky léků   MeSH
• bolševník chemie   genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• druhová specificita MeSH
• ekosystém MeSH
• klíčení účinky léků   MeSH
• kořeny rostlin chemie   genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• metabolom * MeSH
• Plantago účinky léků   MeSH
• rostlinné exsudáty chemie   izolace a purifikace   metabolismus   MeSH
• zavlečené druhy MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• rostlinné exsudáty MeSH