VOC emissions and protein expression mediated by the interactions between herbivorous insects and Arabidopsis plant. A review

Abstract

Herbivorous insects, such as phloem-sap feeders and chewers, induce resistance response in plants. There is a long-standing hypothesis that herbivores increase the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the Arabidopsis plant model. However, most works were restricted to the study of the regulation of plant VOCs emissions and only in some cases to the effects of insects on such emissions. Often these investigations do not establish a link between quantitative and qualitative emission of plant VOCs with actual damages caused by insects. Moreover, information remain limited about the processes that occur at the protein level encoded of the host plant under stress conditions. Here, we briefly summarize the effects of specific chewing and phloem-sap feeding insects on the emission of VOCs by Arabidopsis thaliana Col-, and review some predictions about pathogenesis-related (PR-) proteins, based on current evolutionary hypotheses. Further investigation of the effects of herbivorous insects on VOC emissions and protein expression is expected to improve our knowledge about their patterns and functions in plant responses to stresses.

Keywords

• Arabidopsis thaliana
• herbivorous insect
• chewer
• phloem-sap feeder
• volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• pathogenesis-related proteins (PR-proteins)