Coping abiotic stress with plant volatile organic chemicals (PVOCs): A promising approach

Abstract

Abiotic stresses including salinity are a major threat to agricultural productivity and hence global food security. Crop plants have adopted specialized strategies to reduce the impact of stress. The biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from a wide range of plants help enable the buildup defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. Plant VOCs are comprised of different isoprene and monoterpene class of compounds in addition to alkanes, alkenes, carbonyls, alcohols, esters, ethers, and acids which have a demonstrated role against abiotic stress factors. Although it has been shown that several metabolic pathways may be involved in building up the defense, antioxidant route of alleviation is believed to be a common mechanism. The identification of the genes, transcriptomic profiling and proteins of the biosynthetic pathway has enabled ways to manipulate the synthesis of isoprenoid compounds. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in adopting VOC strategy to alleviate abiotic stresses in crop plants.