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Surface-to-air signals

Nature volume 411, pages 854–856 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Powerful volatile regulators of gene expression, pheromones and other airborne signals are of great interest in biology. Plants are masters of volatile production and release, not just from flowers and fruits, but also from vegetative tissues. The controlled release of bouquets of volatiles from leaves during attack by herbivores helps plants to deter herbivores or attract their predators, but volatiles have other roles in development and in the control of defence gene expression. Some of these roles may include long-distance signalling within and perhaps between plants.

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Figure 1: Volatile regulators implicated in plant defence and plant-to-plant information transfer.
Figure 2: Communicating danger with airborne signals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gene Expression Laboratory, Ecology Institute, University of Lausanne, Biology Building, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

    Edward E. Farmer

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  1. Edward E. Farmer
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Correspondence to Edward E. Farmer.

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Farmer, E. Surface-to-air signals. Nature 411, 854–856 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35081189

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