Novel chemistry of invasive plants: exotic species have more unique 1 metabolomic profiles than native congeners 2 3

Abstract

and their native congeners of the family Asteraceae. Our results showed that plant chemistry is 51 highly species-specific and diverse among both exotic and native species. Nonetheless, the exotic 52 species had on average a higher total number of metabolites and more species-unique 53 metabolites compared to their native congeners. Herbivory led to an overall increase of 54 metabolites in all plant species. Generalist herbivore performance was lower on most of the 55 exotic species compared to the native species. We conclude that high chemical diversity and 56 large phytochemical uniqueness of the exotic species could be indicative of biological invasion 57 potential

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