Abstract
Secondary metabolites are known to protect lichens against increasing environmental stresses such as light exposure, water potential changes, microbial and herbivore interactions and other changes associated with changes in environmental conditions. Toxitolerant lichens show resistance to ambient environmental levels of pollutants which may be phenotypic or genotypic. In recent years, more attention is being paid to the chemical characterisation of the phenotype. The metabolome consists of two types of compounds, the primary metabolites and the secondary metabolites. The primary metabolites are compounds involved in the basic functions of the living cell, such as respiration and biosynthesis of compounds needed for a living cell, while some secondary metabolites are species specific, which play a role in the interaction of a cell with its environment and may be used as tool to protect lichens from external biotic and abiotic factors, including its defence against elevated pollutant concentration. As metabolic profiles in lichens may be used as pollution indicators (biosensors) and have great potential for the risk assessment of ecosystem. Therefore, isolation and characterisation of metabolites may provide direct evidence about the air quality-induced metabolomic changes in lichens. This chapter provides insight into various chromatographic techniques and modern spectroscopic techniques involved in characterisation of lichen substances.
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Shukla, V., Upreti, D.K., Bajpai, R. (2014). Secondary Metabolites and Its Isolation and Characterisation. In: Lichens to Biomonitor the Environment. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1503-5_2
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