Abstract
Bacteria and fungi emit a huge variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can provide a valuable arsenal for practical use. However, the biological activities and functions of the VOCs are poorly understood. This work aimed to study the action of individual VOCs on the bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Arabidopsis thaliana plants, and fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster. VOCs used in the work included ketones, alcohols, and terpenes. The potent inhibitory effect on the growth of A. tumefaciens was shown for 2-octanone and isoamyl alcohol. Terpenes (−)-limonene and (+)-α-pinene practically did not act on bacteria, even at high doses (up to 400 µmol). 2-Butanone and 2-pentanone increased the biomass of A. thaliana at doses of 200–400 μmol by 1.5–2 times; 2-octanone had the same effect at 10 μmol and decreased plant biomass at higher doses. Isoamyl alcohol and 2-phenylethanol suppressed plant biomass several times at doses of 50–100 μmol. Plant seed germination was most strongly suppressed by isoamyl alcohol and 2-phenylethanol. The substantial killing effect (at low doses) on D. melanogaster was exerted by the terpenes and the ketones 2-octanone and 2-pentanone. The obtained data showed new information about the biological activities of VOCs in relation to organisms belonging to different kingdoms.
Highlights
In recent years, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by microorganisms have attracted great interest among researchers working in microbiology, biotechnology, medicine, and agriculture
This study aimed to investigate the action of these compounds and to evaluate and compare their effect on various biological objects—agrobacteria, plants (A. thaliana, effect on plant growth and seed germination), and insects (D. melanogaster)
The number of grown colonies of both strains of A. tumefaciens decreased at a dose of 15–50 μmol, and no growth was on the plates when μmol of 2-octanone were added
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by microorganisms have attracted great interest among researchers working in microbiology, biotechnology, medicine, and agriculture. A database of identified VOCs (mVOC 2.0 database) has been published Bioinformatics.charite.de/mvoc/, accessed on 16 March 2021); it includes more than compounds emitted by about 1000 species of bacteria and fungi [8]. This is only a small part of volatile substances and their producers due to the difficulty of their identification and a small number of studied microbial strains. Bacterial VOCs belong to different chemical types, including ketones, alcohols, terpenoids, sulfur-containing compounds, alkenes, etc. Some substances are common to the whole group of microorganisms, but others are specific only for particular strains
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