The chemical composition of plants (phytometabolome) is dynamic and modified by environmental factors. Understanding its modulation allows to improve crop quality and decode mechanisms underlying plant-pest interactions. Many studies that investigate metabolic responses to the environment focus on single model species and/or few target metabolites. However, comparative studies using environmental metabolomics are needed to evaluate commonalities of chemical responses to certain challenges. We assessed the specificity of foliar metabolic responses of five plant species to the widespread, ancient symbiosis with a generalist arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus. Here we show that plant species share a large 'core metabolome' but nevertheless the phytometabolomes are modulated highly species/taxon-specifically. Such a low conservation of responses across species highlights the importance to consider plant metabolic prerequisites and the long time of specific plant-fungus coevolution. Thus, the transferability of findings regarding phytometabolome modulation by an identical AM symbiont is severely limited even between closely related species.

Chemical communication underpins virtually all aspects of vertebrate social life, yet remains poorly understood because of its highly complex mechanistic basis. We therefore used chemical fingerprinting of skin swabs and genetic analysis to explore the chemical cues that may underlie mother-offspring recognition in colonially breeding Antarctic fur seals. By sampling mother-offspring pairs from two different colonies, using a variety of statistical approaches and genotyping a large panel of microsatellite loci, we show that colony membership, mother-offspring similarity, heterozygosity, and genetic relatedness are all chemically encoded. Moreover, chemical similarity between mothers and offspring reflects a combination of genetic and environmental influences, the former partly encoded by substances resembling known pheromones. Our findings reveal the diversity of information contained within chemical fingerprints and have implications for understanding mother-offspring communication, kin recognition, and mate choice. Olfaction in particular is fundamental to animal communication, mediating social interactions as varied as territorial behavior, kin recognition, and mate choice (1). Metabolomic tools, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) have made it possible to generate individual-specific chemical "fingerprints." By separating compounds and quantifying their relative abundances, these fingerprints provide a wealth of information, even though not all compounds can necessarily be identified. Both volatile and contact cues are potentially hidden within the extreme complexity of chemical profiles, which is why a mechanistic understanding of chemical communication is still lacking in natural vertebrate populations (2).In particular, "surprisingly little progress" has been made in understanding the link between vertebrate chemical fingerprints and genotype (2). Experimental studies have shown that females of several species are capable of discriminating potential partners based on olfactory cues (3-5). However, very few studies have demonstrated a convincing link between the molecular composition of chemical fingerprints and genetic traits, such as heterozygosity (a measure of genetic quality) and relatedness (6-9). These studies were almost exclusively conducted on a captive population of lemurs, a species known for its conspicuous use of scent marking.A functional understanding of how genotype is chemically encoded also requires knowledge of how many and which types of substances are involved. This is challenging because, especially in natural populations, an individual's mixture of surface chemicals is not only the product of its genotype but may also be mediated by hormones, the microbial flora, body condition, and environmental factors (2). Thus, analyses based on overall chemical fingerprints may overlook subtle genetic signatures and make little if any headway toward identifying the specific substances involved. A second less-appreciated problem is that the modest panels of around 10-15 microsat...

The relevance of the symbiosis-induced Medicago truncatula sucrose synthase gene MtSucS1 for an efficient arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) was studied using two independent antisense lines that displayed up to 10-fold reduced SucS1 levels in roots. Mycorrhizal MtSucS1-reduced lines exhibited an overall stunted aboveground growth under inorganic phosphorus limitation. Apart from a reduced plant height, shoot weight, and leaf development, a delayed flowering, resulting in a lower seed yield, was observed. In addition, the root-to-shoot and root weight ratios increased significantly. Gene expression studies demonstrated a major reversion of AM-associated transcription, exhibiting a significant repression of well-known plant AM marker and mycosymbiont genes, together indicating a diminished AM fungus colonization of MtSucS1-antisense lines. Concomitantly, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolite profiling revealed that mycorrhizal MtSucS1-reduced lines were affected in important nodes of the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus metabolism, accentuating a physiological significance of MtSucS1 for AM. In fact, antisensing MtSucS1 provoked an impaired fungal colonization within the less abundant infected regions, evident from strongly reduced frequencies of internal hyphae, vesicles, and arbuscules. Moreover, arbuscules were early senescing, accompanied with a reduced development of mature arbuscules. This defective mycorrhiza status correlated with reduced phosphorus and nitrogen levels and was proportional to the extent of MtSucS1 knockdown. Together, our results point to an important role for MtSucS1 in the establishment and maintenance of arbuscules in the AM symbiosis.

We analyzed the role of the sucrose (Suc) synthase MtSucS1 during nodulation of the model legume Medicago truncatula, integrating data for the developmental, transcriptional, and metabolic processes affected downstream of an impaired Suc cleavage in root nodules. To reduce carbohydrate supply to nodule tissues, transgenic plants expressing a p35S-driven MtSucS1-antisense fusion were constructed. These plants displayed an up to 90% reduction of MtSucS1 proteins in roots and nodules. Phenotypic studies of two independent MtSucS1-reduced lines demonstrated that only under conditions depending on nodulation, these plants appeared to be impaired in above-ground growth. Specifically plant height, shoot weight, leaf development, flowering, as well as seed maturation were reduced, and the efficiency of photosynthesis was affected. Concomitantly, a significantly enhanced root to shoot ratio with a marked increase in root tip numbers was observed. Root nodule formation was found retarded and the impaired nodulation was accompanied by a less efficient nitrogen (N) acquisition. The decreased total N content of MtSucS1-antisense lines and an enhanced carbon to N ratio in roots, nodules, and shoots correlated with the extent of MtSucS1 knockdown. On the level of transcription, effects of an MtSucS1 reduction were evident for genes representing important nodes of the nodule carbon and N metabolism, while metabolite profiling revealed significantly lower levels of amino acids and their derivatives particularly in strongly MtSucS1-reduced nodules. Our results support the model that nodule-enhanced Suc synthase 1 of the model legume M. truncatula is required for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient N-fixing symbiosis.

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The nodule-specific MtNOD25 gene of the model legume Medicago truncatula encodes a modular nodulin composed of different repetitive modules flanked by distinct N- and C-termini. Although similarities are low with respect to all repetitive modules, both the N-terminal signal peptide (SP) and the C-terminus are highly conserved in modular nodulins from different legumes. On the cellular level, MtNOD25 is only transcribed in the infected cells of root nodules, and this activation is mediated by a 299-bp minimal promoter containing an organ-specific element. By expressing mGFP6 translational fusions in transgenic nodules, we show that MtNOD25 proteins are exclusively translocated to the symbiosomes of infected cells. This specific targeting only requires an N-terminal MtNOD25 SP that is highly conserved across a family of legume-specific symbiosome proteins. Our finding sheds light on one possible mechanism for the delivery of host proteins to the symbiosomes of infected root nodule cells and, in addition, defines a short molecular address label of only 24 amino acids whose N-terminal presence is sufficient to translocate proteins across the peribacteroid membrane.

1. Variation in larval food composition can have far-reaching effects on the adult phenotype of insects. To maximise reproductive output, it is therefore beneficial if insects are able to plastically adapt to nutritional cues in their larval diet.2. The expression of sexual traits implicated in pre-and postcopulatory sexual selection of the lesser wax moth, Achroia grisella Fabricius, across different rearing environments of varying diet composition was investigated.3. Moths reared on diet with relatively low amounts of carbohydrate, but more protein and fats, had lower survival rates, decreased body mass, and longer development times. Males reared on this diet produced songs with higher pulse pair rates (which are attractive to females) and transferred more sperm per copulation than males reared on the alternative diets.4. There was no evidence for a trade-off between pre-and postcopulatory traits. Interestingly, individuals with both higher pulse pair rates and more transferred sperm came from the treatment group with higher mortality rates and generally poorer development. The present results suggest that both of these sexual characteristics are developmentally plastic, but that only moths reared on the protein-rich diet were able to benefit from this plasticity.