Metabolomics Chemical Defense

Just keep eating this red algae. It s an invasive species and we have to get rid of it. 

I m trying, hut if I get anywhere near where you have been eating it tastes like %. 

Reference G. M. Nylund, F. Weinberger, M. Rempt, and G. Pohnert, Metabolic assessment of induced and activated chemical defence in the invasive red alga Gracilaria vermiculophylla, PLoS One 6 e29359 (2011). 

The red alga Gracilaria vermiculophylla is native to the Northwest Pacific but has become an invasive species in the Eastern Atlantic and Baltic Sea. Observations of this alga suggest that it has a chemical defense mechanism, a condition that is likely to enhance its ability to invade new habitats, because it is a low-preference food source for generalist herbivores. 

Methanol extracts of selected tissues were analyzed by UPLC-ESl-QTOFMS (negative ion mode). Derivatized (methoxyamination and trimethylsilylation) samples were also analyzed by GC-TOF-MS. Comparison of unknown spectra with co-injection standards and NMR-separated fractions were used for analyte identification. Statistical analysis included canonical analysis of principal coordinates (an extension of principal component analysis) and permutational multivariate analysis of variance. 

---