Biology of Plant Volatiles

About this book

Plant volatiles – compounds emitted from plant organs to interact with the surrounding environment – play essential roles in attracting pollinators and defending against herbivores and pathogenes, plant-plant signaling, and abiotic stress responses. Biology of Plant Volatiles, with contributions from leading international groups of distinguished scientists in the field, explores the major aspects of plant scent biology.

Responding to new developments in the detection of the complex compound structures of volatiles, this book details the composition and biosynthesis of plant volatiles and their mode of emission. It explains the function and significance of volatiles for plants as well as insects and microbes whose interactions with plants are affected by these compounds. The content also explores the biotechnological and commercial potential for the manipulation of plant volatiles.

Features:
- Combines widely scattered literature in a single volume for the first time, covering all important aspects of plant volatiles, from their chemical structures to their biosynthesis to their roles in the interactions of plants with their biotic and abiotic environment
- Takes an interdisciplinary approach, providing multilevel analysis from chemistry and genes to enzymology, cell biology, organismal biology and ecology
- Includes up-to-date methodologies in plant scent biology research, from molecular biology and enzymology to functional genomics

This book will be a touchstone for future research on the many applications of plant volatiles and is aimed at plant biologists, entomologists, evolutionary biologists and researchers in the horticulture and perfume industries.

Contents

Part 1: Chemistry of plant volatiles
1. Practical approaches to plant volatile collection and analysis
2. Analysis of internal pools of plant volatiles
3. Bioassay-guided semiochemical discovery in volatile-mediated specialized plant-pollinator interactions with a practical guide to fast-track progress
4. The Chemical diversity of floral scent
5. Vegetative and fruit volatiles for human consumption

Part 2: Biochemistry, molecular biology, and evolution of plant volatiles
6. The role of transcriptome analysis in shaping the discovery of plant volatile genes: past, present, and future
7. Flux distribution dynamics at the interface of central carbon metabolism and terpenoid volatile formation
8. Floral scent metabolic pathways and their regulation
9. Biosynthesis and regulation of vegetative plant volatiles
10. Biosynthesis and regulation of fruit volatiles
11. Biosynthesis and regulation of below-ground signaling molecules
12. Evolution of scent genes
13. Volatiles in glands
14. Emission and perception of plant volatiles

Part 3: Plant-plant, plant-insect and plant-microbial interactions
15. Floral volatiles for pollinator attraction and speciation in sexually deceptive orchids
16. Behavioral responses to floral scent: experimental manipulations and multimodal plant-pollinator communication
17. Herbivore-induced plant volatiles as a source of information in plant-insect networks
18. Belowground plant volatiles: plant-plant, plant-herbivore and plant-microbial interactions
19. Tree volatiles: effects of biotic and abiotic factors on emission and biological roles
20. Metabolic engineering of plant volatiles: floral scent, flavors, defense

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