Virus-Infected Melon Plants Emit Volatiles that Induce Gene Deregulation in Neighboring Healthy Plants

It is well described that viral infections stimulate the emission of plant volatiles able to recruit vectors thereby promoting virus spread. In contrast, much less known on effects emitted may have metabolism healthy neighboring plants, which are potential targets for new through vector transmission. Watermelon mosaic (WMV) (genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae) an aphid-transmitted endemic in cucurbit crops worldwide. We compared gene expression profiles WMV-infected melon plants with those or healthy-but-cohabited-with-infected plants. Pathogenesis-related (PR) and small heat shock protein encoding genes were deregulated cohabited PR deregulation depended distance infected plant. The signaling was short experimental conditions used, cohabiting had a moderate effect susceptibility WMV. Static headspace experiments showed benzaldehyde γ-butyrolactone significantly over-emitted by Altogether, our data suggest perception volatile signal encoded tissues triggers response prepare or/and incoming infections.