Metabolomic analysis of the interaction between plants and herbivores

Abstract

Insect herbivores by necessity have to deal with a large arsenal of plant defence metabolites. The levels of defence compounds may be increased by insect damage. These induced plant responses may also affect the metabolism and performance of successive insect herbivores. As the chemical nature of induced responses is largely unknown, global metabolomic analyses are a valuable tool to gain more insight into the metabolites possibly involved in such interactions. This study analyzed the interaction between feral cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and small cabbage white caterpillars (Pieris rapae) and how previous attacks to the plant affect the caterpillar metabolism. Because plants may be induced by shoot and root herbivory, we compared shoot and root induction by treating the plants on either plant part with jasmonic acid. Extracts of the plants and the caterpillars were chemically analysed using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography/Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (UPLCT/MS). The study revealed that the levels of three structurally related coumaroylquinic acids were elevated in plants treated on the shoot. The levels of these compounds in plants and caterpillars were highly correlated: these compounds were defined as the 'metabolic interface'. The role of these metabolites could only be discovered using simultaneous analysis of the plant and caterpillar metabolomes. We conclude that a metabolomics approach is useful in discovering unexpected bioactive compounds involved in ecological interactions between plants and their herbivores and higher trophic levels.

Metabolome Profiling Reveals Metabolic Cooperation between Bacillus megaterium and Ketogulonicigenium vulgare during Induced Swarm Motility

“…In this study, 127 different metabolites were identified and measured based on GC-TOF-MS. Second, detecting the changes in the important metabolites at different time points could assist in elucidating the roles of these metabolites in the modulation dynamics of the ecosystem. Third, the chemical composition of the environment (i.e., agar) could also be monitored to reveal metabolic cooperation due to its role in metabolite exchanges (15,24). Research on metagenomics and metaproteomics usually deduced the role of some organism in the ecosystem based on gene or protein analysis, but the metabolomics approach would provide a more intuitive understanding of how cells interact with each other via metabolites and the cellular responses to environments.…”

Navigating natural variation in herbivory-induced secondary metabolism in coyote tobacco populations using MS/MS structural analysis

“…31), including the attack of insects (32)(33)(34); but few of these studies have explored qualitative and quantitative variations of these metabolic adjustments across native populations. To systematically explore natural diversity patterns in the metabolic response to Manduca sexta herbivory of different N. attenuata populations, we conducted a glasshouse-based high-throughput MS-based metabolomics approach on 183 plants derived from seeds collected in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California.…”

Central Metabolic Responses to Ozone and Herbivory Affect Photosynthesis and Stomatal Closure

“…The metabolomics approach has been applied in various areas of plant biology and ecology (Sardans et al, 2011;Weckwerth, 2011), where it has helped in understanding the regulation of pathways during plant-herbivore interactions (Jansen et al, 2008;Misra et al, 2010) and plant stress responses (Shulaev et al, 2008;Nakabayashi and Saito, 2015). What typically distinguishes metabolomics from targeted analyses or general metabolic profiling is the ambition to integrate with other omics sciences (Fiehn, 2002;Barah and Bones, 2015).…”