A robust, simple, high‐throughput technique for time‐resolved plant volatile analysis in field experiments

Plants are a major atmospheric source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These secondary metabolic products protect plants from high-temperature stress, mediate in plant–plant and plant–insect communication, and affect our climate globally. The main challenges in plant foliar VOC research are accurate sampling, the inherent reactivity of some VOC compounds that makes them hard to detect directly, and their low concentrations. Plant VOC research relies on analytical techniques for trace gas analysis, usually based on gas chromatography and soft chemical ionization mass spectrometry. Until now, these techniques (especially the latter one) have been developed and used primarily by physicists and analytical scientists, who have used them in a wide range of scientific research areas (e.g., aroma, disease biomarkers, hazardous compound detection, atmospheric chemistry). The interdisciplinary nature of plant foliar VOC research has recently attracted the attention of biologists, bringing them into the field of applied environmental analytical sciences. In this paper, we review the sampling methods and available analytical techniques used in plant foliar VOC research to provide a comprehensive resource that will allow biologists moving into the field to choose the most appropriate approach for their studies.

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“…Other systems, including a flower enclosure, are described elsewhere (Tholl et al, 2006; Kallenbach et al, 2014). …”

Section: Sampling Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods in plant foliar volatile organic compounds research

et al. 2015

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“…The PDMS trapping procedure is described in Kallenbach et al . (). Peak areas were integrated and the concentration was calculated on the basis of BA standards.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silencing Nicotiana attenuata LHY and ZTL alters circadian rhythms in flowers

et al. 2015

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SummaryThe rhythmic opening/closing and volatile emissions of flowers are known to attract pollinators at specific times. That these rhythms are maintained under constant light or dark conditions suggests a circadian clock involvement. Although a forward and reverse genetic approach has led to the identification of core circadian clock components in Arabidopsis thaliana, the involvement of these clock components in floral rhythms has remained untested, probably because of the weak diurnal rhythms in A. thaliana flowers.Here, we addressed the role of these core clock components in the flowers of the wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata, whose flowers open at night, emit benzyl acetone (BA) scents and move vertically through a 140°arc.We first measured N. attenuata floral rhythms under constant light conditions. The results suggest that the circadian clock controls flower opening, BA emission and pedicel movement, but not flower closing.We generated transgenic N. attenuata lines silenced in the homologous genes of Arabidopsis LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) and ZEITLUPE (ZTL), which are known to be core clock components. Silencing NaLHY and NaZTL strongly altered floral rhythms in different ways, indicating that conserved clock components in N. attenuata coordinate these floral rhythms.

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“…The emission of (E)-α-bergamotene from leaves and flowers was sampled using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) (Roth) tubes as described (81). A new fully expanded leaf was treated by W+R for 5 h and immediately enclosed into a 650-mL ventilated PET container with one PDMS tube.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flower-specific jasmonate signaling regulates constitutive floral defenses in wild tobacco

Wang

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Optimal defense (OD) theory predicts that within a plant, tissues are defended in proportion to their fitness value and risk of predation. The fitness value of leaves varies greatly and leaves are protected by jasmonate (JA)-inducible defenses. Flowers are vehicles of Darwinian fitness in flowering plants and are attacked by herbivores and pathogens, but how they are defended is rarely investigated. We used Nicotiana attenuata, an ecological model plant with well-characterized herbivore interactions to characterize defense responses in flowers. Early floral stages constitutively accumulate greater amounts of two well-characterized defensive compounds, the volatile (E)-α-bergamotene and trypsin proteinase inhibitors (TPIs), which are also found in herbivore-induced leaves. Plants rendered deficient in JA biosynthesis or perception by RNA interference had significantly attenuated floral accumulations of defensive compounds known to be regulated by JA in leaves. By RNA-seq, we found a JAZ gene, NaJAZi, specifically expressed in early-stage floral tissues. Gene silencing revealed that NaJAZi functions as a flower-specific jasmonate repressor that regulates JAs, (E)-α-bergamotene, TPIs, and a defensin. Flowers silenced in NaJAZi are more resistant to tobacco budworm attack, a florivore. When the defensin was ectopically expressed in leaves, performance of Manduca sexta larvae, a folivore, decreased. NaJAZi physically interacts with a newly identified NINJA-like protein, but not the canonical NINJA. This NINJA-like recruits the corepressor TOPLESS that contributes to the suppressive function of NaJAZi on floral defenses. This study uncovers the defensive function of JA signaling in flowers, which includes components that tailor JA signaling to provide flower-specific defense

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A robust, simple, high‐throughput technique for time‐resolved plant volatile analysis in field experiments

Cited by 97 publications

References 52 publications

Methods in plant foliar volatile organic compounds research

Methods in plant foliar volatile organic compounds research

Silencing Nicotiana attenuata LHY and ZTL alters circadian rhythms in flowers

Flower-specific jasmonate signaling regulates constitutive floral defenses in wild tobacco

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