Whilst the geographical range of species is a fundamental unit of macroecology and a leading predictor of extinction risk, the evolutionary dynamics of species’ ranges remain poorly understood. In some aquatic beetles, thermal niche has been shown to be related to both the relative range size and position of congeners but whether other physiological niche parameters play a role is unknown. Here, immunocompetence and metabolic plasticity were related to biogeography in these insects. Immunocompetence was first compared within a rare-common pair of Hydroporus species, finding species-specific immunity, which was affected by sex and acclimation time in the laboratory, with no clear relationship with rarity. This relationship was explored further in Deronectes species, whilst controlling for sex and acclimation time. Southern, narrow-ranging species had higher phenoloxidase (PO) activity, lower parasite load and antimicrobial peptide (AMP) activity that was stronger against Gram-negative Bacteria but weaker against Gram-positive Bacteria than their wider-ranging counterparts. As both of these studies found that PO activity did not positively correlate with encapsulation or AMP activity as reported in the literature, the pathway was investigated further in Tribolium castaneum. The data showed that the assumptions of the widely-used PO assay were violated, with differential activity between PO-driven reactions in melanin synthesis and different substrates used by larvae and adults. Future work should be wary of using the PO assay as a marker of potential melanin production and take into account the developmental requirements for melanin at different life stages. The relationship between metabolic plasticity and range was then assessed in Deronectes, finding that southerly species had more marked changes in glucose and protein content under elevated temperature stress than their northerly counterparts. Glucose content was also significantly positively correlated to lipid content, indicating that the energetics of species exhibiting differing range sizes may warrant future study. As the results from Hydroporus suggested that there may be trade-offs between immune defence and metabolism, the data on metabolic plasticity and immunocompetence in a sub-sample of Deronectes species were combined with thermal physiology, dispersal ability, body size and phylogenetic relatedness to assess which of these best explained variation in range size and position. Whilst variation in range extent and position were explained in part by thermal physiology, aspects of metabolic plasticity and immunocompetence also appeared to be important. This thesis provides one of the first indications that immunocompetence and metabolic plasticity may be related to geographical range and suggests parameters that may be worthy of exploration in other taxa.

Ein genereller Ansatz zur Charakterisierung von biologischen Systemen bietet die Untersuchung des Metaboloms, dessen Analyse als „Metabolomics“ bezeichnet wird. “Omics”- Technologien haben das Ziel, ohne Selektionskriterien möglichst alle Bestandteile einer biologischen Probe zu detektieren (identifizieren und quantifizieren), um daraus Rückschlüsse auf nicht vorhersehbare und somit neuartige Korrelationen in biologischen Systemen zu ziehen. Ein zentrales Dogma in der Biologie besteht in der Kausalität zwischen Gen – Enzym – Metabolite. Perturbationen auf einer Ebene rufen systemische Antworten hervor, die in einem veränderten Phänotyp münden können. Metabolite sind die Endprodukte von zellulären regulatorischen Prozessen, deren Abundanz durch die Resonanz auf genetische Modifikationen oder Umwelteinflüsse zurückzuführen ist. Zudem repräsentieren Metabolite ultimativ den Phänotyp eines Organismus und haben die Fähigkeit als Biomarker zu fungieren. Die integrale Analyse verschiedenster Stoffwechselwegen wie Krebszyklus, Pentosephosphatzyklus oder Calvinzyklus offeriert die Identifikation von metabolischen Mustern. In dieser Arbeit wurden sowohl das targeted Profiling via GC-TOF-MS als auch das untargeted Profiling via GC-TOF-MS und LC-FT-MS als analytische Strategien genutzt, um biologische Systeme anhand ihrer Metabolite zu charakterisieren und um physiologische Muster als Resonanz auf endogene oder exogene Stimuli zu erkennen. Dabei standen die metabolische, phänotypische und genotypische Plastizität von Pflanzen im Fokus der Untersuchungen. Metabolische Varianzen eines Phänotyps reflektieren die genotyp-abhängige Resonanz des Organismus auf umweltbedingte Parameter (abiotischer und biotischer Stress, Entwicklung) und können mit sensitiven Metabolite Profiling Methoden determiniert werden. Diese Anwendungen haben unter anderem auch zum Begriff des „Environmental Metabolomics“ geführt. In Kapitel 2 wurde der Einfluss biotischer Interaktionen von endophytischen Bakterien auf den Metabolismus von Pappelklonen untersucht; Kapitel 3 betrachtet die metabolische Plastizität von Pflanzen im Freiland auf veränderte biotische Interaktionsmuster (Konkurrenz/Diversität/Artenzusammensetzung); Abschließend wurde in Kapitel 4 der Einfluss von spezifischen genetischen Modifikationen an Peroxisomen und den daraus resultierenden veränderten metabolischen Fluss der Photorespiration dargestellt. Aufgrund der sensitiven Analyse- Technik konnten metabolische Phänotypen, die nicht zwingend in einen morphologischen Phänotyp mündeten, in drei biologischen Systemen identifiziert und in einen stoffwechselphysiologischen Kontext gestellt werden. Die drei untersuchten biologischen Systeme – in vitro- Pappeln, Grünland- Arten (Arrhenatherion-Gesellschaft) und der Modellorganismus (Arabidopsis) – belegten anschaulich die Plastizität des Metabolismus der Arten, welche durch endogene oder exogene Faktoren erzeugt wurden. / A general approach to characterise biological systems offers the analysis of the metabolome, named “metabolomics”. “Omics”- technologies are untargeted approaches without any selection criteria which aim to detect every potential analyte in a sample in order to draw conclusions about new correlations in biological systems. A central dogma in biology is the causality between gene – enzyme – metabolite. Perturbations on one level are reflected in systemic response, which possibly result in a changed phenotype. Metabolites are end products of its gene expression and metabolism, whose abundance is determined as a resonance of genetic modifications or environmental disturbance. Furthermore metabolites represent the ultimate phenotype of an organism and are able to act as a biomarker. The integral analysis of distinct metabolic pathways like TCA, Pentose phosphate and Calvin cycle consequently leads to the identification of metabolic patterns. In this work targeted profiling via GC-TOF-MS as well as untargeted profiling via GC-TOF-MS and LC-FT-MS were used as analytical strategies to characterise biological systems on the basis of their metabolites and to identify physiological patterns as resonance of endogenic or exogenic stimuli. The focus of the investigations concentrates on the metabolic, phenotypic and genotypic plasticity of plants. Metabolic variance of a phenotype is reflected in the genotypic dependence response of an organism on environmental parameters which may be detected via sensitive metabolic profiling methods. In chapter 2 the influence of biotic interaction of endophytic bacteria on the metabolism of their poplar host was analyzed; chapter 3 explores the metabolic plasticity of field-grown grassland species as a consequence of biotic interaction pattern (competition / diversity / species composition); In conclusion, chapter 4 illustrates the influence of specific genetic modifications on peroxisomes and the consequent changed metabolic flux in the photorespiration pathway. Due to the sensitive analytic methods, metabolic phenotypes in all three biological systems could be identified and classified in a physiological context. The three biological systems – in vitro poplar plants, field-grown grassland species and the model organism Arabidopsis – demonstrate the plasticity of the metabolism of species in response to stimuli.