Eliciting tomato plant defenses by exposure to herbivore induced plant volatiles
Meritxell Pérez‐Hedo, M. Alonso, Sandra Vacas, C. E. Gallego, José Luís Rambla, Vicente Navarro‐Llopis, Antonio Granell, Alberto Urbaneja
Abstract
When zoophytophagous mirids (Hemiptera: Miridae) feed on tomato plants they activate both direct and indirect defense mechanisms, which include the release of herbivore induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). HIPVs are capable of activating defense mechanisms in healthy neighboring plants. In this work, we investigated which of these mirid-induced HIPVs are responsible for inducing plant defenses. Healthy tomato plants were individually exposed to eight HIPVs [1-hexanol, (Z)-3-hexenol, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, (Z)-3-hexenyl propanoate, (Z)-3-hexenyl butanoate, hexyl butanoate, methyl jasmonate and methyl salicylate] for 24 hours.