Chemical ecology

Chemical ecology is a vast and interdisciplinary field utilizing biochemistry, biology, ecology, and organic chemistry for explaining observed interactions of living things and their environment through chemical compounds (e.g. ecosystem resilience and biodiversity).^[1][2] Early examples of the field trace back to experiments with the same plant genus in different environments, interaction of plants and butterflies, and the behavioral effect of catnip.^[3][4][5] Chemical ecologists seek to identify the specific molecules (i.e. semiochemicals) that function as signals mediating community or ecosystem processes and to understand the evolution of these signals.^[6] The chemicals behind such roles are typically small, readily-diffusible organic molecules that act over various distances that are dependent on the environment (i.e. terrestrial or aquatic) but can also include larger molecules and small peptides.^[7][8]

In practice, chemical ecology relies on chromatographic techniques, such as thin-layer chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry (MS), and absolute configuration utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to isolate and identify bioactive metabolites.^[2][6] To identify molecules with the sought-after activity, chemical ecologists often make use of bioassay-guided fractionation.^[8] Today, chemical ecologists also incorporate genetic and genomic techniques to understand the biosynthetic and signal transduction pathways underlying chemically mediated interactions. ^[2][8][9]