Exploiting Plant Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Agriculture to Improve Sustainable Defense Strategies and Productivity of Crops

Abstract

There is an urgent need for new sustainable solutions to support agriculture in facing current environmental challenges. In particular, intensification of productivity and food security needs require sustainable exploitation of natural resources and metabolites. Here, we bring the attention to the agronomic potential of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from leaves, as a natural and eco-friendly solution to defend plants from stresses and to enhance crop production. To date, application of VOCs is often limited to fight herbivores. Here we argue that potential applications of VOCs are much wider, as they can also protect from pathogens and environmental stresses. VOCs prime plant’s defense mechanisms for an enhanced resistance/tolerance to the upcoming stress, quench reactive oxygen species (ROS), have potent antimicrobial as well as allelopathic effects, and might be important in regulating plant growth, development, and senescence through interactions with plant hormones. Current limits and drawbacks that may hamper the use of VOCs in open field are analyzed, and solutions for a better exploitation of VOCs in future sustainable agriculture are envisioned.

Shoot Characterization of Isoprene and Ocimene-Emitting Transgenic Arabidopsis Plants under Contrasting Environmental Conditions

“…The role of isoprenoids in plant defense strategies against biotic and abiotic stresses and their potential applications to agriculture are increasingly being appreciated [42]. Our results highlight both similarities and differences in abiotic stress tolerance among isoprene and ocimene emitters, which on the one hand determined their evolution in natural environments and on the other hand will affect the possibility of applying them to agricultural settings.…”

“…This is relevant considering that in the future, climate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather events [44], and further suggests that enhanced isoprenoids' emission could be a viable strategy to be used in crop improvement. For instance, under stressful conditions, the induced stress tolerance (e.g., reactive oxygen species scavenging, membrane stability, gas exchange and dry weight maintenance) and the synergistic effects between isoprenoids, secondary metabolites (e.g., carotenoids), and hormones (i.e., cytokinins) [42] is of major interest, in particular to assess whether a potential delayed in senescence is induced in isoprenoid-emitting plants under thermal stress (a favorable trait in several crops, e.g., cereals [45]). However, which terpene should be better suited to this task is still a matter of debate, as the evidence in favor of either of them is still fragmentary and partly conflicting.…”

Sensing the Danger Signals: cis-Jasmone Reduces Aphid Performance on Potato and Modulates the Magnitude of Released Volatiles

“…Thus, negatively affecting these traits would likely reduce the overall aphid fitness. Given the current thinking that effective control does not necessarily have to rely on aphid mortality, we believe that priming potato defense against aphids using CJ has the potential to provide new opportunities for sustainable crop protection, especially if being used in the context of IPM, through the induction of VOC emissions (Turlings and Erb, 2018;Brilli et al, 2019). This could minimize the need for applying conventional toxic agrochemicals in potato fields.…”

Under Fire –simultaneous Volatilome and Transcriptome Analysis Unravels Fine-scale Responses of Tansy Chemotypes to Dual Herbivore Attack

“…The terpene synthase (TPS) gene family is responsible for this massive diversity of compounds, as a single TPS enzyme can catalyse up to 10 different structures from a single substrate [8,9]. VOCs can be emitted immediately following damage caused by a herbivore, or can be induced and emitted several hours later [10]. Traditional methods for assessing volatile emissions in plant-herbivore interactions continue to be improved upon, with more sensitive instruments coming to market [11,12].…”