The growth of fungi and Arabidopsis thaliana is influenced by bacterial volatiles

Abstract

Dual culture systems, which only allowed volatiles to cross the boundary of a bipartite Petri dish, were used to investigate the effects of bacterial volatiles on the growth of 14 fungi and A. thaliana. The majority of tested combinations exhibited dramatic growth retardations of fungi and A. thaliana, indicating diat volatiles can act as antibiotics. It therefore can be concluded diat bacterial volatiles influence the growth conditions of organisms in a community and in a habitat. ©2008 Landes Bioscience.