The central aim in ecometabolomics and chemical ecology is to pinpoint chemical features that explain molecular functioning. The greatest challenge is the identification of compounds due to the lack of constitutive reference spectra, the large number of completely unknown compounds, and bioinform...

BACKGROUND: We describe a new approach to the recovery of information from faecal samples, based on the analysis of the molecular signature generated by rapid evaporative ionisation mass spectrometry (REIMS).

RESULTS: Faecal pellets from five different r...

Plants exude a diverse cocktail of metabolites into the soil as response to exogenous and endogenous influences. So far, root exudates have only been studied under artificial conditions due to methodological difficulties. In this study, each five perennial grass and forb species were investigated...

Residues from ancient artifacts can help identify which plant species were used for their psychoactive properties, providing important information regarding the deep-time co-evolutionary relationship between plants and humans. However, relying on the presence or absence of one or several biomarke...

Plants produce thousands of compounds, collectively called the metabolome, which mediate interactions with other organisms. The metabolome of an individual plant may change according to the number and nature of these interactions. We tested the hypothesis that tree diversity level affects the met...