Microbes to the Rescue – Exploring the Chemistry of Microbial Communication and Using it to Protect Plant Health

Abstract

Plants are densely colonized by diverse microbial communities. These microbes, which provide important benefit to their host supporting its growth and health, interact with each other and with their host plant by exchanging chemical signals, among which volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This review presents some of our current research lines in the field of microbial VOCs, including their bioactivities on both plants and plant pathogens, and the abiotic and biotic factors influencing their emission. Understanding how VOCs emission is regulated in plant-associated microbes is one of the major challenges for both fundamental and translational aspects of this research field.