English
LC-MS-Based Profiling of Secondary Metabolites in Antarctic Lichens
Jaewon Kim1, 2, and Jae Eun So1*
1Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Korea
2Department of plant Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Email: ragifam@gmail.com
Lichens are a dominant component of Antarctic terrestrial vegetation and represent important study organisms for understanding primary production, microhabitat formation, and adaptation to extreme environments. However, comprehensive studies on the chemical diversity of Antarctic lichens, particularly their secondary metabolite composition, remain limited. In this study, LC-MS-based metabolite profiling was conducted on 100 Antarctic lichen samples, and the detected compounds are being annotated to examine their associations with species identity and growth form. Multivariate statistics will be used to characterize the overall patterns of metabolite distribution across all samples, and molecular networking analysis will be performed on the genus Cladonia (28 samples) to explore chemical diversity within this lineage in greater detail. This study aims to provide an overview of secondary metabolite profiles in Antarctic lichens and to establish a basis for re-evaluating the validity of TLC-based chemotaxonomic characters traditionally used in lichen taxonomy.
