Rapid green leaf volatile sensing allows intact plants to release induced volatiles earlier than wounded emitters
- 1Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern 3013, Switzerland
- 2Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Yazhou District, Sanya 572025, China
- 3Neuchâtel Platform of Analytical Chemistry, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel 2000, Switzerland
Abstract
Organisms in the vicinity of attacked neighbors can respond to danger cues by activating their own defenses. However, the temporal dynamics of these interactions remain poorly resolved, despite their importance for the ensuing effects. Here, we investigated defense responses of maize plants that are exposed to induced volatiles from herbivory-induced neighbors in real time. These experiments revealed a surprising temporal paradox: Intact neighbors start emitting most induced volatiles 15 to 80 min earlier than the attacked plants themselves. This earlier responsiveness was not associated with earlier induction of defense hormones, volatile biosynthesis genes, or within-leaf volatile accumulation. Instead, receiver plants kept their stomata open, while attacked sender plants rapidly closed them, likely because of water loss. Using different volatile deficient mutants, we demonstrate that the rapid responses in receivers are triggered by green leaf volatiles, which are released from the wound sites of sender plants within minutes independently of stomatal aperture. Thus, nonattacked neighbors can act as “unhindered observers” that activate some defenses more quickly than attacked organisms themselves, as they do not have to deal with wound trauma. The resulting plant volatile concatenation patterns expand our understanding of volatile signaling and have the potential to shape population-level multitrophic interactions.
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BibTeX
@article{cofer2026rapid,
title = {{Rapid green leaf volatile sensing allows intact plants to release induced volatiles earlier than wounded emitters}},
author = {Tristan M. Cofer and Lingfei Hu and Gaetan Glauser and Matthias Erb},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2604047123},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2604047123},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Rapid green leaf volatile sensing allows intact plants to release induced volatiles earlier than wounded emitters
AU - Tristan M. Cofer
AU - Lingfei Hu
AU - Gaetan Glauser
AU - Matthias Erb
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2604047123
UR - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2604047123
AB - Organisms in the vicinity of attacked neighbors can respond to danger cues by activating their own defenses. However, the temporal dynamics of these interactions remain poorly resolved, despite their importance for the ensuing effects. Here, we investigated defense responses of maize plants that are exposed to induced volatiles from herbivory-induced neighbors in real time. These experiments revealed a surprising temporal paradox: Intact neighbors start emitting most induced volatiles 15 to 80 min earlier than the attacked plants themselves. This earlier responsiveness was not associated with earlier induction of defense hormones, volatile biosynthesis genes, or within-leaf volatile accumulation. Instead, receiver plants kept their stomata open, while attacked sender plants rapidly closed them, likely because of water loss. Using different volatile deficient mutants, we demonstrate that the rapid responses in receivers are triggered by green leaf volatiles, which are released from the wound sites of sender plants within minutes independently of stomatal aperture. Thus, nonattacked neighbors can act as “unhindered observers” that activate some defenses more quickly than attacked organisms themselves, as they do not have to deal with wound trauma. The resulting plant volatile concatenation patterns expand our understanding of volatile signaling and have the potential to shape population-level multitrophic interactions.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -