Abstract
The results of studies about interactions between microorganisms involving at least one plant pathogen are of interest to the areas of ethiology and control in Plant Pathology. Various aspects of these interactions have been studied over the years but the toxicity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been emphasized only recently, developing techniques and procedures, and producing additional knowledge to those already obtained with water-soluble substances. This new facet of these interactions based on VOCs is discussed in this review involving mainly fungi, bacteria and nematodes pathogenic to plants. Also discussed is the role of VOCs produced by microorganisms, especially fungi and bacteria, in soil fungistasis and the effect of VOCs on fungal agents used in the control of plant parasitic nematodes. The evidence of VOCs broadens the research studies about these interactions. However, the scarcity of the research results in this area show up gaps which need to be filled and some research proposals are discussed. The present and future accumulated VOC knowledge will perhaps be beneficial to farmers, especially aspects related to increasing soil suppressiveness to plant disease and to the finding of analog molecules of VOCs highly effective against plant pathogens.
Highlights
Interactions between microorganisms are affected by watersoluble – and volatile – molecules, only volatile compounds will be discussed here.In ecosystems, plants compensate for their immobility by releasing volatile substances into the atmosphere and from roots into the soil constituting about 1% of secondary plant metabolites
The vast majority of studies examining the efflux of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from terrestrial ecosystems has focused on the production of such substances by plants (Kesselmeier & Staudt, 1999), which, according to Knudsen & Gershenzon (2006), can produce more than 1700 VOCs
Among 81 distinct VOC substances detected in the 15 bacterial isolates by Gu et al (2007), 46 VOCs were not considered to have any nematicidal activities (NA) because they were present in all tested bacterial isolates and as well as in the medium with similar abundance
Summary
Interactions between microorganisms are affected by watersoluble – and volatile – molecules, only volatile compounds will be discussed here. Plants compensate for their immobility by releasing volatile substances into the atmosphere and from roots into the soil constituting about 1% of secondary plant metabolites. These volatile substances promote plant communication and interaction with the surrounding environment (Dudareva et al, 2006). The inhibitory mode of action, when it involves one plantpathogen microorganism among interacting organisms, will be of interest to researchers in areas such as Plant Pathology, soil suppression, biological control and Nematology, among others. We will focus on VOCs produced by microorganisms which interfere with those pathogenic to plants causing antagonistic interaction among them and by drawing a perspective of success, or not, when a biological control agent is introduced in the site occupied by other residents
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