Jean-Michel Mérillon - Co-Evolution of Secondary Metabolites

This reference works series provides a platform for all information on plant metabolites and phytochemicals, their chemistry, properties, applications, and methods. By the strictest definition, phytochemicals are chemicals derived from plants. However, the term is often used to describe the large number of secondary metabolic compounds found in and derived from plants. These metabolites exhibit a number of nutritional and protective functions for human welfare such as colorants, fragrances and flavorings, amino acids, pharmaceuticals, hormones, vitamins and agrochemicals. Besides food, fibers, fuel, cloth and shelter, a vast number of wild plants can hence provide important sources for medicines, especially in developing countries for their traditional health systems. Natural products have inspired and provided the foundation to the bulk of FDA-approved compounds and there is tremendous increase in natural products and natural products derived compounds that have been registered against many prevailing diseases. Natural product industry has shown tremendous growth and is expected to continue to do so in the near future. The present series compiles reference information on various topics and aspects about phytochemicals, including their potential as natural medicine, their role as chemo-preventers, in plant defense, their ecological role, their role in plants as well as for pathogen adaptation, and disease resistance. Volumes in the series also contain information on methods such as metabolomics, genetic engineering of pathways, molecular farming, and obtaining metabolites from lower organisms and marine organisms besides higher plants. The books in the series are hence of relevance in various fields, from chemistry, biology, biotechnology, to pharmacognosy, pharmacology, botany, or medicine. Each volume is edited by leading experts and contains authoritative contributions by renowned authors.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13872

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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This book is like a dream project putting together metabolic aspect of complex biological processes like pollination, symbiosis, herbivory by insects, and volatiles released by plants in their atmosphere. Most of these processes are very complex and produce very small amount of metabolites, which remains a challenging task to detect and quantify. Though the chemistry and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites is increasingly well studied, less attention is paid to their evolutionary and interactive aspect. Almost all plants are attacked by insect herbivores, pests, and animals and they cannot escape from being non-movable unlike animals. Therefore, they evolve and conserve several defensive traits to combat pests by various types of chemical weapons. Improvement in tools of chemical analysis like GLC, HPLC with sensitive sensors and detectors such as mass spectrometer, and high-throughput screening along with gene expression using transcriptome analysis paved the way for analyzing, detecting, and identifying these molecules, small or large, in quantities unnoticeable with old prevailing technology.

Therefore, this book presents state of information about secondary metabolites produced in plants during interaction with parasites, pollinators, pests, and herbivores. As secondary metabolites are specialized classes of compounds biosynthesized by different pathways involving several genes, this is an interesting evolutionary mechanism to adapt to the changing host or the pests by modifying the secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites play a crucial fundamental biological role in a plants life, and genetic changes are required to execute the energy-expensive process.

The bookCo-evolution of Secondary Metabolitesis divided into six parts covering the entire gamut of bioactive molecules present in plants. This includes phenomena like diversity within plant, changes in secondary metabolites during adaptation of plants to life on land, and involvement of secondary metabolites in pollination, allelochemy, abiotic stress, hostparasite interaction, sensory perception, insectplant interaction, and plant defense. These interactions are vital for survival of plants and their pests and have evolutionary consequence.

This book is planned as a reference work providing state-of-the-art knowledge composed by highly renowned scientists of the field. Well-recognized international specialists in their respective fields of research contributed the chapters. This book will be useful to all those working in the field of botany, evolutionary biology, phytochemistry, physiology, molecular biology, biotechnology, and plant pathology. This book is arranged in 36 well-illustrated chapters.

We would like to acknowledge the cooperation, patience, and support of our contributors who have put serious efforts to ensure the high scientific quality of this book with up-to-date information. We are thankful to the staff at Springer, namely Dr. S. Blago and N. Clifford, for their professional support in this project.