Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function

In this study, we interpreted leaf metabolome variation among 457 tropical and 339 temperate plant species to understand how the metabolome contributes to macroecological variation in plant functioning. Metabolome data were generated using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, annotated with compound names (where possible), and cross-referenced against chemoinformatics databases to derive metabolite chemical properties. We then compared variation in leaf metabolite chemical properties among species with variation in classical plant functional traits., ,

本研究针对457种热带植物与339种温带植物的叶片代谢组（metabolome）变异开展解析，旨在探明代谢组如何驱动植物功能的大生态尺度变异。代谢组数据通过液相色谱质谱法（liquid chromatography mass spectrometry）获取，尽可能对化合物名称完成注释，并通过与化学信息学（chemoinformatics）数据库交叉比对，推导得到代谢物的化学属性。随后我们将不同物种间叶片代谢物化学属性的变异，与经典植物功能性状的变异进行对比分析。