Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as regulators of the impact of climate change on the cultivation and metabolome of the medicinal and aromatic plant Coleus amboinicus Lour

Climate change will threaten the ecosystems on which people depend for their health. This phenomenon will be particularly pronounced for populations in developing countries who rely on medicinal plants (MAPs) as their first-line medicines [ 1 ]. Environmental factors have been shown to influence both the growth and the molecular composition of MAPs. Increases in atmospheric CO2 and temperature or drought are major climatic perturbations that have variable consequences [ 2 ]. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can induce changes in specific metabolites of MAPs by activating metabolic pathways. AMF are obligate symbionts with great potential to improve plant growth through a variety of mechanisms, including increased mineral nutrition, water uptake, drought and disease resistance and plant productivity [ 3 ]. Coleus amboinicus Lour. is a semi-succulent plant of the Lamiaceae family with a pungent oregano-like odour that is widely cultivated in the tropics and whose leaves have many uses in traditional medicine [ 4 ]. To study the impact of climate change on the growth and metabolome of C. amboinicus , we performed a culture experiment in a controlled environment (CO2 rate, temperature, differentiated irrigation) by inoculating or not the cultures with AMF. Untargeted metabolomic approaches based on mass spectrometry were used to identify new patterns in biotic and abiotic interactions. Our results show that water conditions have a significant impact on growth, extraction yields and molecular composition. Volatile molecules are over-expressed under lower water conditions and in the presence of AMF, while the composition of non-volatile compounds changes differently depending on the metabolite family considered in response to the same conditions. Publication History Article published online: 05 March 2026 © 2026. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany