Intra-Individual and Intraspecific Terpenoid Diversity in Erodium cicutarium

Abstract

The chemodiversity between and within individuals of several plant species is remarkable and shaped by the local habitat environment and the genetic background. The forb Erodium cicutarium (Geraniaceae) is globally distributed and partly invasive. This paper hypothesizes a high intra-specific and inter-individual chemical diversity in this species and investigates this by comparing the concentration and diversity of terpenoid compounds in different plant parts, i.e., leaves, blossoms and fruits. Plants were grown from seeds, originating from native range Bavaria (BY), Germany, and invaded range California (CA), USA, populations. In total, 20 different terpenoids were found, which occurred in distinct combinations and the patterns clustered into groups of distinct chemotypes for all plant parts. Several of the chemotypes were specific to plants of one region. The terpenoid compositions of different plant parts within individuals were highly correlated. Chemodiversity was higher in reproductive plant parts compared to the leaves, and higher in plants from BY compared to CA. This study highlights the intra-specific and inter-individual chemodiversity in E. cicutarium, linked to its geographical origin, which may facilitate its invasion success but also calls for further investigation of the role of chemodiversity in invasive plants on interactions with the environment.

Understanding the phytochemical diversity of plants: Quantification, variation and ecological function

“…Studies quantifying chemodiversity using a diversity index most often calculate diversity as a function of richness and evenness, by calculating the Shannon’s or Simpson diversity. Similar to richness, variation in diversity has been documented at different levels of biological organization, including for different plant tissues (Eilers 2021, Elser et al 2022), populations (Bravo-Monzón et al 2014, 2018) and species (Ortiz et al 2019, Peguero et al 2021). There is also variation along altitudinal gradients (Glassmire et al 2016, Volf et al 2020, Philbin et al 2021) and for different levels/types of herbivory (Li et al 2020, Philbin et al 2022).…”

Intraspecific chemical variation ofTanacetum vulgareaffects plant growth and reproductive traits in field plant communities

“…This is important, as it emphasizes the role of trait differentiation as a form of niche partitioning, especially as young plants are establishing in the field. Specialized metabolites might represent an increased adaptive potential, particularly to perennial plants (Eilers, 2021), regulate plant development, and mediate plant interactions (Pang et al ., 2021; Ninkovic et al ., 2019) and stress resistance (Isah, 2019). Thus, a tradeoff between defense and growth is highly dependent on the identity and diversity of compounds and on the plant’s mechanisms to reduce the cost of producing them (by either assigning new functions to those metabolites or reintegrating them into primary metabolism, Erb & Kliebenstein, 2020).…”

“…At the plant level, the phytochemical profile produced by different individuals of the same species is used to assign them to specific chemotypes. Intraspecific chemodiversity can also manifest at the population, stand, or plot level (Clancy, 2021;Eilers, 2021;Müeller et al, 2020;Clancy et al, (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved.…”

“…Individuals of a plant species can be clustered into distinct groups -also called chemotypesusing their dominant compounds, the composition of volatile and non-volatile compound blends, or by comparisons of specific specialized metabolites produced by individuals (Eilers, 2021). The consequences of specialized metabolites for intra-and interspecific interactions have been studied in various plant model systems (Moore et al, 2014), including Tanacetum vulgare (Neuhaus-Harr et al, 2023;Eilers et al, 2021;Clancy et al, 2016;Kleine & Müller, 2011), Jacobaea vulgaris (Kostenko & Bezemer, 2013), Plantago lanceolata (Wurst et al, 2008;Harvey et al, 2005), Senecio inaequidens (Cano et al, 2009), and Brassica oleracea (Bustos-Segura et al, 2017;Kos et al, 2011;Kabouw et al, 2010;Poelman et al, 2009).…”

“…At the plant level, the phytochemical profile produced by different individuals of the same species is used to assign them to specific chemotypes. Intraspecific chemodiversity can also manifest at the population, stand, or plot level (Clancy, 2021; Eilers, 2021; Müeller et al, 2020; Clancy et al, 2018; Seft, Weisser & Zytynska, 2017). Here, intraspecific chemodiversity is represented by the richness (i.e., the number of chemotypes) and relative abundance of different chemotypes of the same plant species that interact in the same space.…”