Does the Phytochemical Diversity of Wild Plants Like the Erythrophleum genus Correlate with Geographical Origin?

Cédric Delporte (1) , Nausicaa Noret (2) , Cécile Vanhaverbeke (3) , Olivier Hardy (2) , Jean-Francois Martin (4) , Marie Tremblay-Franco (4) , David Touboul (5) , Anais Gorel (6) , Marie Faes (1) , Caroline Stevigny (1) , Pierre van Antwerpen (1) , Florence Souard (3, 1)

1 ULB - Faculté de Pharmacie [Bruxelles]
2 ULB - Faculté des Sciences [Bruxelles]
3 DPM - Département de pharmacochimie moléculaire
4 E20 - Metatoul AXIOM
5 ICSN - Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles
6 UGENT - Universiteit Gent = Ghent University

Secondary metabolites are essential for plant survival and reproduction. Wild undomesticated and tropical plants are expected to harbor highly diverse metabolomes. We investigated the metabolomic diversity of two morphologically similar trees of tropical Africa, Erythrophleum suaveolens and E. ivorense, known for particular secondary metabolites named the cassaine-type diterpenoids. To assess how the metabolome varies between and within species, we sampled leaves from individuals of different geographic origins but grown from seeds in a common garden in Cameroon. Metabolites were analyzed using reversed phase LC-HRMS(/MS). Data were interpreted by untargeted metabolomics and molecular networks based on MS/MS data. Multivariate analyses enabled us to cluster samples based on species but also on geographic origins. We identified the structures of 28 cassaine-type diterpenoids among which 19 were new, 10 were largely specific to E. ivorense and five to E. suaveolens. Our results showed that the metabolome allows an unequivocal distinction of morphologically-close species, suggesting the potential of metabolite fingerprinting for these species. Plant geographic origin had a significant influence on relative concentrations of metabolites with variations up to eight (suaveolens) and 30 times (ivorense) between origins of the same species. This shows that the metabolome is strongly influenced by the geographical origin of plants (i.e., genetic factors).

Mots clés: eco-metabolomics; plant-omics; plant fingerprint; metabolomics; natural variation; molecular networks; cassane-type diterpenes; specialized metabolites; geographic variation; phytochemical

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Cédric Delporte, Nausicaa Noret, Cécile Vanhaverbeke, Olivier Hardy, Jean-Francois Martin, et al.. Does the Phytochemical Diversity of Wild Plants Like the Erythrophleum genus Correlate with Geographical Origin?. Molecules, 2021, 26 (6), pp.1668. ⟨10.3390/molecules26061668⟩. ⟨hal-03180276⟩