Perception of Plant Volatiles

The capacity to produce and perceive organic chemicals is essential for most cellular organisms. Plant leaves that are attacked by insect herbivores for instance start releasing distinct blends of herbivore-induced plant volatiles, which in turn can be perceived by non-attacked tissues. These tissues then respond more rapidly and more strongly to herbivore attack. One major question that constrains the current understanding of plant volatile communication is how plants perceive herbivore induced volatiles. Answering how plants perceive volatiles would push the boundaries of plant signaling research, as it would allow for detailed analyses of the biological functions and potential agricultural benefits of plant volatile perception.The key objectives of PERVOL are 1) to develop a new high-throughput plant volatile sampling system for genetic screens of indole perception, 2) to use the system to identify molecular mechanisms of plant volatile perception and 3) to uncover novel biological functions of volatile priming. PERVOL aims at setting new technological standards by providing the community with an innovative and powerful volatile sampling system. Furthermore, it will push the field of plant volatile research by elucidating mechanisms of herbivore induced volatile perception, generating new genetic resources for functional investigations of plant volatile signaling and testing new potential biological functions of the perception of herbivore induced volatiles.

PERVOL has successfully established a new type of volatile sampling system that couples a robotic system to a custom airflow system and a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS). This system is capable of recording volatile fingerprints of over 100 different volatile sources with a temporal resolution below 30 minutes, thus setting a new standard in the field of plant volatile research and leading to a patent filed by an involved SME.

PERVOL has also successfully uncovered how maize plants integrate two volatile cues with complementary information value, indole and hexenyl acetate, into strong defense responses an enhanced resistance against chewing herbivores. Further, using transgenic rice plants impaired in early defense signaling, PERVOL demonstrated that indole-induced herbivore resistance is due to its enhancing effects on early defense signaling, resulting in higher jasmonate production upon attack. PERVOL furthermore identified the map kinase MPK3 to be essential for indole-mediated resistance priming. Thus, this work identifies early signaling components that are required for the perception of herbivory-induced volatiles in plants. These findings have been published in peer reviewed journals. PERVOL has also uncovered a series of novel candidate genes with unknown function that are likely involved in plant volatile perception, to be investigated further in the future.

PERVOL has made significant advances in understanding the potential and biological impact of plant volatile signaling. It uncovered that indole not only reprograms plant immunity, but also herbivory immunity and defense, a novel phenomenon which was then demonstrated to shape tritrophic interactions. This finding has been published in the peer reviewed literature. Further experiments revealed potentially important spatiotemporal perception patterns and drought-related interactions, both of which will be investigated in depth in follow-up experiments.

PERVOL pushed the state-of-the art in volatile-mediated plant-plant interactions by establishing a next generation volatile sampling system, uncovering molecular mechanims of plant volatile perception and unravelling new biological functions and effects of plant volatile signaling.

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - PERVOL (Perception of Plant Volatiles)

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