Publication
Diversity and divergence: evolution of secondary metabolism in the tropical tree genus Inga
Publisher:
Wiley
Date:
29-11-2022
DOI:
10.1111/NPH.18554
Abstract: Plants are widely recognized as chemical factories, with each species producing dozens to hundreds of unique secondary metabolites. These compounds shape the interactions between plants and their natural enemies. We explore the evolutionary patterns and processes by which plants generate chemical ersity, from evolving novel compounds to unique chemical profiles. We characterized the chemical profile of one‐third of the species of tropical rainforest trees in the genus Inga ( c. 100, Fabaceae) using ultraperformance liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry‐based metabolomics and applied phylogenetic comparative methods to understand the mode of chemical evolution. We show: each Inga species contain structurally unrelated compounds and high levels of phytochemical ersity closely related species have ergent chemical profiles, with in idual compounds, compound classes, and chemical profiles showing little‐to‐no phylogenetic signal at the evolutionary time scale, a species' chemical profile shows a signature of ergent adaptation. At the ecological time scale, sympatric species were the most ergent, implying it is also advantageous to maintain a unique chemical profile from community members finally, we integrate these patterns with a model for how chemical ersity evolves. Taken together, these results show that phytochemical ersity and ergence are fundamental to the ecology and evolution of plants.