Plants emit green leaf volatiles (GLVs) in response to herbivore damage, thereby attracting predators of the herbivores as part of an indirect defense. The GLV component of this indirect defense was thought to be a general wound signal lacking herbivore-specific information. We found that Manduca sexta-infested Nicotiana attenuata attract the generalist hemipteran predator Geocoris spp. as the ...

Many plants respond to herbivory by releasing a specific blend of volatiles that is attractive to natural enemies of the herbivores. In corn (Zea mays), this induced odor blend is mainly composed of terpenoids and indole. The induced signal varies with plant species and genotype, but little is known about the variation due to abiotic factors. Here, we tested the effect of soil humidity, air hum...

Herbivore-damaged plants emit volatile organic compounds that attract natural enemies of the herbivores. This form of indirect plant defence occurs aboveground as well as belowground, but it remains unclear how simultaneous feeding by different herbivores attacking leaves and roots may affect the production of the respective defence signals. We employed a setup that combines trapping of volatil...

Recent research bridging mechanistic and ecological approaches demonstrates that plant attributes can affect herbivores, natural enemies of herbivores, and their interaction. Such effects may be genetically variable among plants and/or induced in individual plants by herbivore attack, and are mediated by primary plant attributes (i.e. nutritional quality and physical structure) and defense-rela...

Indirect responses are defensive strategies by which plants attract natural enemies of their herbivores that act as plant defending agents. Such defences can be either constitutively expressed or induced by the combined action of mechanical damage and low- or high-molecular-weight elicitors from the attacking herbivore. Here, we focus on two induced indirect defences, namely the de novo product...

Plants produce a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Under abiotic and biotic stresses, the number and amount of produced compounds can increase. Due to their long life span and large size, trees can produce biogenic VOCs (BVOCs) in much higher amounts than many other plants. It has been suggested that at cellular and tree physiological levels, induced production of VOCs is aimed at i...

BACKGROUND Insect herbivory induces plant odors that attract herbivores' natural enemies. Assuming this attraction emerges from individual compounds, genetic control over odor emission of crops may provide a rationale for manipulating the distribution of predators used for pest control. However, studies on odor perception in vertebrates and invertebrates suggest that olfactory information proce...

Plants respond adaptively to herbivore stress in order maintain fitness. Upon attack, plants emit blends of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that differ from those are constitutively emitted. These defense responses typically specific the identity attacking and often linked herbivore's feeding guild (e.g. chewing, phloem-feeding). Herbivores use plant volatiles locate suitable host changes emi...