Investigating the Chemobiodiversity of Bryophytes through Untargeted Metabolomics

Among the large and diversified plant species that populate our planet, bryophytes certainly occupy an important place in the plant kingdom. This group of ancient non-vascular plants evolved more than 350 million years ago from green algae, and comprise more than 20.000 species, considering Mosses, Hornworts and Liverworts. Bryophytes have adapted to live in different environments by developing several adaptations and strategies during their evolution, including the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites. However, information about the metabolome composition of most Bryophyte species remains limited. This work focuses on the characterization of the metabolic profiles of a range of Bryophyte species, including mosses and liverworts. It is part of a larger project, the National Biodiversity Future Center, which aims to explore the chemo-biodiversity of species belonging to Italian flora to discover metabolites exerting possible biological activities towards human health and plant growth promotion and protection. Regarding mosses, the dried plants were initially hydrated and sampled after 7 days. The vegetative material was cleaned from soil particles and dead parts, and subsequently sampled forming 3 different representative biological replicates. For liverworts, plants were immediately cleaned and sampled. Plants were frozen with liquid nitrogen, homogenized to a fine powder and extract with methanol. To elucidate the metabolic profile of the collected species, the methanol extracts were diluted and analysed by following an untargeted metabolomics approach with a UPLC-HRMS technique. Samples were also analyzed in FAST-DDA mode (data-dependent analysis) to assist the subsequent identification analysis, which is actually ongoing.