Biochemistry of Plant Volatiles

作者：Natalia Dudareva, Eran Pichersky, Jonathan Gershenzon · 发表于：PLANT PHYSIOLOGY · 年份：2004 · DOI：10.1104/pp.104.049981 · 被引用次数：1123 · 研究领域：Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis、Essential Oils and Antimicrobial Activity、Biochemical and biochemical processes

Plants have a penchant for perfuming the atmosphere around them. Since antiquity it has been known that both floral and vegetative parts of many species emit substances with distinctive smells. The discovery of the gaseous hormone ethylene 70 years ago brought the realization that at least some of the compounds emitted may have physiological significance without any distinctive smell to humans. At present, more than 1,000 low M r organic compounds have been reported to be emitted from plants, although a comprehensive list is available only for floral volatiles (Knudsen et al., 1993). Our knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of plant volatiles has been significantly extended in the last 15 years thanks to the adoption of simple, sensitive methods for headspace sampling and the availability of relatively inexpensive bench-top instruments for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The substances reported are largely lipophilic products with molecular masses under 300. Most can be assigned to the following classes (in order of decreasing size): terpenoids, fatty acid derivatives including lipoxygenase pathway products, benzenoids and phenylpropanoids, C5-branched compounds, and various nitrogen and sulfur containing compounds. Nearly all of these classes are emitted from vegetative parts as well as flowers (Knudsen et al., 1993), and some are even emitted from roots (Steeghs et al., 2004). A major discovery of the last decade is that plants commonly emit much greater amoun...