L'abus de substances volatiles

Update on Biochemistry of Plant Volatiles Biochemistry of Plant Volatiles

Plants have a penchant for perfuming the atmosphere around them. Since antiquity it has been known that both floral and vegetative parts of many species emit substances with distinctive smells. The discovery of the gaseous hormone ethylene 70 years ago brought the realization that at least some of the compounds emitted may have physiological significance without any distinctive smell to humans....

Plant volatiles

Plant volatiles are the metabolites that plants release into the air. The quantities released are not trivial. Almost one-fifth of the atmospheric CO2 fixed by land plants is released back into the air each day as volatiles. Plants are champion synthetic chemists; they take advantage of their anabolic prowess to produce volatiles, which they use to protect themselves against biotic and abiotic ...

The importance of carcass volatiles as attractants for the hide beetle Dermestes maculatus (De Geer).

A decaying cadaver emits volatile organic compounds that are used by necrophilous and necrophagous insects in order to find their brood substrate. Although volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released by carcasses have been identified, little is known about the specific compounds that are used by these insects while searching for a brood substrate. Therefore, we have investigated the che...

De Novo Biosynthesis of Volatiles Induced by Insect Herbivory in Cotton Plants.

In response to insect feeding on the leaves, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plants release elevated levels of volatiles, which can serve as a chemical signal that attracts natural enemies of the herbivore to the damaged plant. Pulse-labeling experiments with [13C]CO2 demonstrated that many of the volatiles released, including the acyclic terpenes (E,E)-[alpha]-farnesene, (E)-[beta]-farnesene, (...

Volatiles in Protoplanetary Disks