News

Decoding neighbour volatiles in preparation for future competition

Published: 26 October 2016

Plant volatile signals can provide important information about the physiological status and genetic identity of the emitter, and nearby plants can use this information to detect competitive neighbours.

Highlights:

• Plants use volatile signals from undamaged neighbours to monitor and predict existence of potential competitors.

• The signals may induce adaptive physiological responses even before competition starts.

• The plant responses may affect the behaviour and abundance of insects.

• Only volatiles from damaged plants were previously known to induce such responses.