The marriage between stable isotope ecology and plant metabolomics – new perspectives for metabolic flux analysis and the interpretation of ecological archives

Abstract

SummaryEven though they share many thematical overlaps, plant metabolomics and stable isotope ecology have been rather separate fields mainly due to different mass spectrometry demands. New high‐resolution bioanalytical mass spectrometers are now not only offering high‐throughput metabolite identification but are also suitable for compound‐ and intramolecular position‐specific isotope analysis in the natural isotope abundance range. In plant metabolomics, label‐free metabolic pathway and metabolic flux analysis might become possible when applying this new technology. This is because changes in the commitment of substrates to particular metabolic pathways and the activation or deactivation of others alter enzyme‐specific isotope effects. This leads to differences in intramolecular and compound‐specific isotope compositions. In plant isotope ecology, position‐specific isotope analysis in plant archives informed by metabolic pathway analysis could be used to reconstruct and separate environmental impacts on complex metabolic processes. A technology‐driven linkage between the two disciplines could allow us to extract information on environment–metabolism interaction from plant archives such as tree rings but also within ecosystems. This would contribute to a holistic understanding of how plants react to environmental drivers, thus also providing helpful information on the trajectories of the vegetation under the conditions to come.