The dazzling variation in plant chemistry is a primary mediator of trophic interactions, including herbivory, predation, parasitism, and disease. At the same time, such interactions feed back to influence spatial and temporal variation in the chemistry of plants. In this book, Mark Hunter provides a novel approach to linking the trophic interactions of organisms with the cycling of nutrients in ecosystems. Hunter introduces the concept of the "phytochemical landscape"—the shifting spatial and temporal mosaic of plant chemistry that serves as the nexus between trophic interactions and nutrient dynamics. He shows how plant chemistry is both a cause and consequence of trophic interactions, and how it also mediates ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. Nutrients and organic molecules in plant tissues affect decomposition rates and the fluxes of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The availability of these same nutrients influences the chemistry of cells and tissues that plants produce. In combination, these feedback routes generate pathways by which trophic interactions influence nutrient dynamics and vice versa, mediated through plant chemistry. Hunter provides evidence from terrestrial and aquatic systems for each of these pathways, and describes how a focus on the phytochemical landscape enables us to better understand and manage the ecosystems in which we live. Essential reading for students and researchers alike, this book offers an integrated approach to population-, community-, and ecosystem-level ecological processes.

The dazzling variation in plant chemistry is a primary mediator of trophic interactions, including herbivory, predation, parasitism, and disease. At the same time, such interactions feed back to influence spatial and temporal variation in the chemistry of plants. In this book, Mark Hunter provides a novel approach to linking the trophic interactions of organisms with the cycling of nutrients in ecosystems. Hunter introduces the concept of the "phytochemical landscape"—the shifting spatial and temporal mosaic of plant chemistry that serves as the nexus between trophic interactions and nutrient dynamics. He shows how plant chemistry is both a cause and consequence of trophic interactions, and how it also mediates ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. Nutrients and organic molecules in plant tissues affect decomposition rates and the fluxes of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The availability of these same nutrients influences the chemistry of cells and tissues that plants produce. In combination, these feedback routes generate pathways by which trophic interactions influence nutrient dynamics and vice versa, mediated through plant chemistry. Hunter provides evidence from terrestrial and aquatic systems for each of these pathways, and describes how a focus on the phytochemical landscape enables us to better understand and manage the ecosystems in which we live. Essential reading for students and researchers alike, this book offers an integrated approach to population-, community-, and ecosystem-level ecological processes.

This is the second volume since the reintroduction of the Recent Advances in Phytochemistry (RAP) series, an annual journal supported by the Phytochemical Society of North America. Topics appropriate for RAP include the biosynthesis of natural products and regulation of metabolism, the ecology of specialized metabolites and the evolution of their pathways, and the effects of natural products or plants on human health. Research appropriate for RAP involves genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, natural product structural determination and new technology development, medicinal chemistry and metabolic engineering, or any of the myriad of fields that are now closely associated with what may be called “traditional phytochemistry” and plant biochemistry. The advent of post-genomics-based ways of thinking, of systems biology, of synthetic biology, of comparative genomics/ proteomics/ transcriptomics/ metabolomics and especially of the introduction and establishment of a mentality that leads to support of large collaborative projects, has opened up many new doors to scientists interested and versed in the (bio)chemistry of plants. The goal of RAP is to highlight these developments. Two main types of articles are printed in RAP: Perspectives and Communications. Perspectives in RAP are expected to synthesize results from the primary literature and perhaps from new/novel results and place these in perspective relative to the broader field. These articles may be similar to review articles, but also are intended to present important ideas and hypotheses, and may present proposals for interesting directions in the field. It is the hope of the Editorial Board that these articles will be of great value to a large audience. Communications are intended to represent new advances in the field that will be of interest to a large audience. Articles of both types are typically solicited from the Society membership based on the content of the annual meeting talks, but in keeping with the title “Recent Advances in Phytochemistry” the editorial board reserves the right to solicit additional Perspectives and/or Communications from non-attendees as well (e.g., where an editorial board member has knowledge of an interesting recent advancement that would be of general interest to the society membership). All submissions to RAP go through a rigorous peer review process, overseen by the Editorial Board, which includes external review. RAP is indexed with Springer published journals. All RAP papers are available not only in the published volume form, but also electronically through Springer’s online literature services. This marks a significant change from past volumes of RAP and it is the hope of the Editorial Board that this will lead to broader dissemination of the contents of and greater interest in RAP. This 42nd volume of RAP includes a total of seven articles, many, but not all, based on talks presented at the 50th annual meeting of the PSNA. As was seen in RAP volume 41, These seven Perspectives give a very good picture of the breadth of plant (bio)chemistry research in North America, which is also indicative of the state of the field worldwide. Each of these articles describes the integration of several different approaches to ask and then answer interesting questions regarding the function of interesting plant metabolites, either in the plant itself or in interactions with the environment (natural setting or human health application). Many of these Perspectives have a strong ecological focus. McCormick et al. review the discovery of the biosynthetic pathway leading to production of trichothecene mycotoxins such as the T-2 toxin in plant pathogenic and other fungi. These compounds play very important roles in plant-pathogen interaction, and are very significant from a human health perspective. In a complementary paper, Duringer et al. describe recent technological advances in monitoring mycotoxins such as ergovaline and lysergic acid in forage crops, using state of the art and highly sensitive mass spectrometric means. Gross reviews the current understanding of how infochemicals mediate interactions between plants and insects, and highlights how such knowledge can be used to mitigate crop losses by pests. Two Perspectives discuss how recent technological advances are making an impact on our understanding of the role of plant hormones in plant growth and development. Gouthu et al. outline highly sensitive methods for measurement of plant hormones in tissues such as developing grape berry. In contrast, McDowell and Gang outline how new transcriptional profiling techniques are shedding light on old questions, such as how rhizome development is regulated by different plant growth regulators. The last two Perspectives outline the role of biotechnology in modern plant biochemistry research. Makhzoum et al. review the long history of use of hairy roots and provide perspective on future utility of this tissue type in continuing to uncover mechanisms of plant natural product biosynthesis, among other apolications. Dalton et al. outline, on the other hand, recent efforts to produce non-native polymers of human interest in plants and outline many of the challenges associated with such investigations. We hope that you will find these Perspectives to be interesting, informative, and timely. It is our goal that RAP will act not only as the voice of the PSNA, but that it will serve as an authoritative, up-to-date resource that helps to set the gold standard for thought and research in fields related to plant biochemistry.

Identifying how variation in abiotic factors and species traits influence the outcome of ecological interactions is fundamental to our understanding of which processes affect community assembly and structure. My goal in this PhD was to describe how nutrient dynamics, plant physical traits, and chemistry affect plant-insect and plant-plant interactions. I pursued this goal in three different systems with natural history observations, comparative field studies, manipulative greenhouse experiments, analytical chemistry, and bioinformatics. I found that investing nitrogen in one tropical passion vine survival strategy did not come at the cost of strategies. Rather, increased soil nitrogen resulted in richer metabolomes, higher leaf toxin concentrations, longer vines, greater biomass, and more leaves with a superior ability to capture sunlight. Next, I investigated how plant traits facilitate the spread of invasive species in Texas, and what consequences their spread has for local communities. I found that lack of variation among native prickly pear nutritional qualities makes them suitable resources to an invasive cactus moth (Cactoblastis cactorum) that recently established in Texas. These findings have serious implications for prickly pear, and their associated food webs that will soon interact with the expanding invasive moth population. I also studied how competition and allelochemical weapons interact to facilitate spread of Guinea grass, a globally distributed invasive pasture grass, in Texas. I found that shading and allelochemistry by Guinea grass interacted to significantly reduce the recruitment and growth of native plants which results in communities with significantly reduced plant diversity. Finally, I compared passion vine phylogenetic, metabolomic, and quantitative traits to describe the drivers of host specialization by sympatric beetles and caterpillars in Costa Rica. I found that passion vine relatedness correlated with host usage in both groups, and different plant characteristics explained how similar each herbivore assemblage was among available hosts. These studies demonstrated the effects of resource availability on plant trait expression and specialized trophic interactions in different environments. Moreover, this dissertation showcased how the mechanisms which govern individual species interactions scale up to influence community structure on a mosaic phytochemical landscape

The 44th volume of RAP contains articles based on work presented at the 51st annual meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America. They were selected to showcase exciting examples of current research in plant chemistry, to highlight the diversity in this field spanning analytical chemistry, ethnobotany, biosynthesis, bioactivity, chemical ecology and biotechnology. Specifically, the perspectives paper by Zerbe and Bohlmann summarizes recent findings on the genes and enzymes involved in conifer resin biosynthesis, while papers by Timoshenko et al. and Guerrero-Analco et al. highlight progress on toxic lectins and bioactive phytochemicals from Canadian forest plants used by Aboriginals, respectively. Next the contribution by Glover and Murch compares methods used to analyze dementia agents in foodstuffs of Pacific Islands. Two papers by Lisko et al and Berhow et al. both summarize recent findings on the engineering of vitamin C contents of plants and of phytochemicals in the emerging oil crop Camelina. Finally, Cook et al discuss the biosynthesis in plant endophytes of alkaloids which have implications for cattle feeding. Overall, these seven Perspectives and Communications give a very good picture of the state of plant (bio) chemistry research in North America, which is also indicative of the state of the field worldwide.

Diversity within and among living organisms is both a biological impera tive and a biological conundrum. Phenotypic and genotypic diversity is the critical currency ofecological interactions and the evolution of life. Thus, it is not unexpected to find vast phytochemical diversity among plants. However, among the most compelling questions which arise among those interested in ecological phytochemistry is the extent, nature, and reasons for the diversity of chemieals in plants. The idea that natural products (secondary metabolites) are accidents of metabolism and have no biological function is an old one which has resurfaced recently under a new term "redundancy. " Redundancy in the broader sense can be viewed as duplication of effort. The co-occurrence of several classes of phytochemieals in a given plant may be redundancy. Is there unnecessary duplication of chemical defense systems and ifso, why? What selective forces have produced this result? On the other hand, why does the same compound often have multiple functions? At a symposium of the Phytochemical Society of North America held in August 1995, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, the topic "Phytochernical Redundancy in Ecological Interactions" was discussed. The chapters in this volume are based on that symposium. They both stimulate thought and provide some working hypotheses for future research. It is being increasingly recognized that functional diversity and multiplicity of function of natural products is the norm rather than the exception.

Naturally present bioactive compounds in plants are referred to as "Phytochemicals" and are being studied extensively for their role in human health. Studies have shown that they can have an important role to play in the prevention and management of several human diseases. Recognizing the increasing interest in this area, this book is being published in response to the need for more current information globally about phytochemicals and their role in human health. Chapters of the book are authored by internationally recognized authors who are experts in their respective field of expertise. The chapters represent both original research as well as up-to-date and comprehensive reviews. We are sure that the book will be an important reference source meeting the needs of a wide range of interest groups.